Ambiance
by chasingafterstarlight
Summary: Jade is a high-maintenance, hard-to-please actress while Beck is the Casanova actor that all of the girls want. When they get cast together as leading roles in a high-budget romance, will sparks fly or will something explode? AU. Jade/Beck.
1. Chapter 1

**Ambiance**

AU

_Chapter One_

Jade West is a superstar.

That much is obvious – she sweeps over the crowds like a supernova, burning anyone who dares to come near her. Ironically enough, she has eyes that look like they are made of jade and a piercing gaze that makes her look as if she can see into people's souls. Basically, she's a top-notch actress, and everyone knows it. That's why they put up with her antics.

"Van Cleef, get me a soda," she commands, perched on a couch. Her feet are crossed at the ankles; the toes of her boots dangle off the edge. When he doesn't respond immediately, she swoops her gaze around to land on him. "Van _Cleef_, I thought I asked you to get me a soda."

The young, terrified boy stands up, his eyes wide. "Yes 'm," he says at once, dashing off to the kitchen. She smiles softly to herself. It is kind of funny how these people have to bend to her every whim, fetching her everything she could ever want. And what she wants right now is a soda.

Some people might call her a Hollywood diva, but she prefers high-maintenance. As long as you go along with everything that she says, she's highly agreeable.

Van Cleef returns with her soda at last, which means that she has to sit up to drink it. She does so, patting out her long, silky black dress. One of the disadvantages of being inherently famous is that she has to look good _all_ of the time, even when she's not really doing anything.

She takes a sip of her soda, eyes scanning the room. Her two personal assistants, Sinjin Van Cleef and Brady Johnson, are scattering about, trying to keep things up to her high standards. This makes her smile. Everyone is always trying to live up to her standards. Hardly anyone ever does.

Her eyes fall upon a third, all too familiar figure, and she jumps up at once, feeling fairly guilty for just lying around like he's always telling her not to do. "Danny! I thought we agreed you weren't coming in today." She flashes her agent a small, heartfelt-looking smile, hoping that he will sense her uneasiness and leave.

"Yeah, well, something changed," Danny replies sharply. Sitting down, he pats the chair on the other side of the table. "I suggest you sit down, Jade."

She does feel, feeling suddenly sick to her stomach. "Did someone_ die_ or something?" Internally, she hopes that it's Tori Vega, though she doesn't say that.

"No." Danny begins to laugh, so Jade laughs awkwardly along with him. She doesn't like being left out of things, let alone things that involve her, so she wishes that he would stop beating around the bush and get to the point. Fortunately for him, he pulls out a stack of papers at last and grins. "You've just been offered the top part in an A-list movie."

"So?" She has been offered a bunch of A-list parts over the past few weeks; most of them, though, she has declined. They all sounded too boring, too mundane for her eccentric taste.

"This one's different, Jade." His tone, for once, is excited, perhaps more excited than she has ever seen him. Raising an eyebrow, Jade leans up a little bit more. If this movie is half as good as Danny seems to think it is, well, she could definitely get on board with it. Grinning, Danny continues. "It's a romance, yes, but most movies seem to be today. This movie addresses many of the problems with society in a roundabout way that makes you consider the issues in your own life."

"Give me the script," she demands, holding out a long, skinny hand. It does sound interesting, Jade has to admit, but she's a strong, independent girl and she'll decide that for herself, thank you very much.

Reluctantly, Danny hands it over to her. "Be careful with it, and get back to me later today, all right? We can't keep them waiting too much longer or they'll offer the part to someone else."

Three hours later, Jade West storms back into Danny's office, a tumultuous look in her eyes. "I'll do it," she says in a determined tone. "Call them up _right_ now and tell them that I'll do it."

Danny dials.

–

In another part of Hollywood, Beck Oliver is having the time of his life. When they said that he was being signed up for a trip to the spa, he had pictured all kinds of girly stuff – cucumbers on eyes, mud baths, pink nail polish on his toes. He had not, however, imagined that he would be served drinks by hot girls at the poolside while someone massaged his back, and yet that is what he's doing right now. _Ah, _Beck thinks as the person rubs his back and he winks at an adorable brunette. _This is the life_.

Of course, his phone picks that exact moment to ring. He groans, turning over so that he can reach it. It's a large annoyance, he decides, and he absently wonders why he brought it in the first place.

It's his agent calling again, he realizes after a second, and therefore he's legally obligated to answer, even though he _was_ at perfect peace before she called. Sighing, he snaps open his phone. "_What_?"

"Beckett, I know you're on vacation, but..." Jamie giggles. "I just got the call. You're being offered a part in Hillside Productions' new movie. _Shattering Reflections_, I believe it's called?"

"Really?" Beck suddenly becomes more animated. "That's amazing!" He'd given the script a read a few days before his spa trip, and it was definitely one of the best scripts he'd ever read. "Do you know who my co-star is yet?"

"Yeah," Jamie replies, her tone apologetic. "Just... Beck, I don't think you're going to like this too much, okay?"

"Why not?" Beck questions, confused. "Who is it? It can't be anyone _that_ bad."

"Well, okay, if you're sure," Jamie responds, still sounding fairly unsure. "It's Jade West."

"I was wrong." Beck nearly drops the phone. Of all actors and actresses in the world, Beck thinks that the dramatic diva Jade West is the one he'd like to work with the least. She's a brat, an annoyance, a diva, and despite that she's admittedly fairly hot, he doesn't want to work with her _at all_. Besides, when they put his ego with her ego, the set will most likely explode. "Can't you get anyone else? _Anyone_ but her?"

Beck can nearly see Jamie shaking her head as she speaks. "No, Beck. The movie company wants a real A-lister, and despite the fact that Jadelyn is fairly hard to work with, she's an amazing, renowned actress and the studio will not settle for anyone but her. Basically, you agree to tolerate Jade for a while and do this romance with her, or you lose the movie all together."

It's a tough choice, actually, Beck realizes as he thinks about it. He really doesn't want to do a romance with a girl that he despises, much less an epic romance. But then again, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and he really doesn't want to pass it up.

Taking a deep breath, he nods. "I'll do it."

He has a feeling that he's going to regret this.

–

Days pass. Jade spends a lot of her time reading and re-reading the script, going over Kyra Spencer's lines until they sink into her mind, transfuse into her brain cells.

"It is better," she repeats in her perfected shaky tone, "to be loved when broken than to be broken because of love." Of course, it is fairly difficult to rehearse, since she hasn't got a boy across from her to recite Kyra's normally scathing (of course, the girl has her soft spots, unlike Jade) lines to. Soon enough, reading the script all by her lonesome self starts to bore her and she goes up to Danny.

"Who is playing the role of Zander?" she demands, putting her hands on her hips to look more threatening. This is important, very much so, and she's not much in the mood to wait around for a few days before finding out.

"Um, Jade..." Danny looks sort of sheepish, which is never a good sign.

"Who is it?" she demands again, her eyes darkening. Can't he just _tell_ her and get it over with? If it's someone unworthy of sharing the screen with her, he'll never hear the end of it either way, so from her point of view it is better for him to tell her straight out.

Sighing, Danny gives her a weary stare, which makes her all the more worried. Have they chosen some Disney star? Even though she and Cat Valentine are good friends, she will _die_ if she has to share a screen with bubblegum-pop star Frankie Valentine. At last, Danny speaks. "Beck Oliver."

_Heck_ no. This is much worse than Frankie Valentine. In fact, this is a crisis situation. Here she is, having a part in one of the best movies she's ever known, and of course stupid _Beck Oliver_ has to come along and ruin it.

She hates him with all of her being. In fact, every time they see each other, they end up in fighting over something. He says that she's a spoiled brat and she thinks that he's a cocky, disrespectful womanizer. And casting the two of them in a romance movie _together_ has to be one of the worst decisions that the studio has ever made.

"You can't be serious," she says at last, her voice deadpan. "Please, Danny, tell me you're kidding."

"I'm not." Danny gives her a small half-smile. "You can pitch a fit if you want, but the studio is deadset on having the two of you in the lead roles, as is the author of this fabulous script – Trina Vega, I do believe her name is?"

"Vega?" One of Jade's eyebrows shoots up immediately. "As in Tori Vega's older sister?"

"Well, yes." Danny knows about Jade's hatred for the other irritating actress. Practically everyone does. Jade makes no secret of it. "But – "

"That's what's going on here, then. Tori asked her _lovely_ sister to demand Beck and I because she knows that we're both fabulous actors – _yes, _I just admitted that Beck is a fairly decent actor but under no circumstances are you to tell him that – and that we hate each other. So she suggested us, because she's evil," Jade declares triumphantly, an expression of distaste coloring her face. "You see, Danny, it all makes sense if you think about it.

"_Or_ Trina admires your work and Beck's as well, and thought that you'd have nice chemistry," Danny suggests, raising an eyebrow at her, which makes her feel like a little child again. Honestly, she thinks angrily, that is _not_ how the entertainment business works.

"She probably thinks Oliver is hot," Jade mumbles under her breath, rolling her eyes. "Which is stupid, because he holds all the allure of a little lost puppy."

"If you're going to work with him on this movie, you're going to have to be a bit more polite to him, Jadelyn," Danny reprimands her, using her full name like he always does when he wants her to shape up. "He's really a nice boy."

"He flirts with anything with boobs," Jade grumbles. "He has an ego the size of the Golden Gate Bridge."

"So do you," Danny points out.

"And that is why we won't work together." Jade crosses her arms across her chest. "I'm probably going to end up getting thrown off of this movie. They're most likely looking for 'believable chemistry' and the only chemistry Beck and I make is explosions, chemical reactions. Unfortunate, isn't it?"

"Not really." Danny chuckles. "It's a fortunate thing, isn't it, that Kyra and Zander start off hating each other and end up falling in love."

She startles, staring up at him with wide eyes. "You're not implying..."

"No, settle down." Danny laughs. "I'm just saying that the scenes they're choosing to start off with are ones where Kyra and Zander hate each other anyway. You and Mr. Oliver will have plenty of time to get your act together."

She stares at him for a minute, completely nonplussed. It's sort of a coincidence, isn't it, that they start off hating each other and end up in –

No. She won't think about it. It's merely a good choice in casting, anyway, and she hates him so the possibility of her falling in love with him is zero. Nothing. Jade doesn't plan on falling in love, anyway. She's much better off on her own.

"Whatever." She yawns, stretching out a bit. "I'm going to bed. If Beck Oliver tries to call for me or something so we can 'get to know each other' because you know he's just the type to do that, tell him to fall into a pit of acid."

"That's not very nice," Danny reprimands her.

"I'm not very nice."

This is the truth.

–

He decides that since Jade West, being the brat she is, is obviously not going to show up at the first rehearsal clutching a bouquet of flowers for him, he has to be the mature, nice one. So he calls her.

Her agent answers the phone. "Beck Oliver. Jade figured you would call."

"She knows me so well." Beck finds himself rolling his eyes, even though her agent can't see. "Does she, I don't know, want to talk or something?"

"She has just gone up to bed, actually. Left her phone with me. Something tells me that she's trying to avoid you." He laughs again, but it sounds strained. "Look, I know she might murder me in cold blood for saying this, but call her back later, okay? I think it'd be best if you two got along, so."

Then he hears footsteps coming down the stairs and the sound of a screechy yell – "_I told you not to answer my phone! ...yes, of course I knew he'd call." _After a moment or two of this, Jade West's voice comes over the line. "Die in a hole, Beck Oliver," she hisses into the phone, and then hangs up.

He sits there for a moment in stunned silence, then holds the phone an inch or two away from his face. "Well," he mutters, a look of shock on his face, "that was rude." Then he turns his phone off and stows it away in his pocket for safe-keeping.

This movie is going to be interesting, to say the least, and the one who's going to make it hard is obviously going to be Jade West, otherwise known as the bane of his existence.

Jade West needs to get a clue, he decides, because this movie could either make them or break them.

And he's determined that it's going to be the first.

–

"You know, you could stand to be nicer – a lot nicer, actually. Beck was trying to call so that you guys could be friendly. He's really a nice guy. A bit flirty sometimes, yes, but nice nonetheless." Danny raises an eyebrow at her.

"I'm really in no mood to think about Beck Oliver," she hisses. "Are we leaving tomorrow, then?"

"Yes. You need to get in a mood to think about him, though, because even though we're not shooting tomorrow, Beck will still be arriving tomorrow, and the movie producers have instructed me to ensure that you two get some time to talk beforehand," Danny informs her, a small smile decorating the edges of his lips.

"I don't want to talk to him. Any talking we do will turn into an intense argument." She shakes her head in disapproval. "And then I'll end up telling him to man up and he'll tell me to grow a heart."

"Arguments of passion?" Danny teases, which, of course, makes her glare at him in a way that clearly implies that she'd much rather be thrown into a vat of snakes than ever have feelings for _Beck Oliver_. "Sorry. But really, Jade, you have to put in some effort."

"I'll try," she grumbles, leaning further back in her chair.

"Your entire career could depend on this, Jade. I suggest that you do a whole lot more than simply _try_. By the way, Cat Valentine called you; you might want to call her back." He tosses her cellphone to her, and she takes it with a sigh.

Punching the callback button, she waits. Cat answers on the second ring. "Jadey! You got a role! And you're starring with Beck Oliver!"

"Yeah. Unfortunately." Jade sighs.

"Unfortunately! Beck Oliver is gorgeous. I mean, he's not – I don't like him like _that_, but it's impossible to deny that he really is a pretty boy." Cat giggles. "Sort of like a pony, don't you think?"

"I hate ponies," Jade responds in a deadpan tone.

"No, you don't!" Cat protests. "Remember a while back, when you and I went riding at that stable and then..." Cat trails off, obviously remembering. Nervously, she giggles again. "Okay, never mind! Just... don't be so negative, okay, Jade? It'll be fun!"

"I highly doubt that," Jade scoffs, her face twisted into a frown. "It'll be more like torture."

"Okay then." Cat sounds really scared now. "I just wanted to say congratulations..."

"Thanks," Jade spits out. Congratulations on what? Congratulations on your death sentence? "I'll... I'll try my best to _have_ _fun_."

"Yay!" Cat is enthusiastic again. Typical Cat, Jade thinks with an eye roll. "Well, I've got to go. Director's calling me. I'll see you later, Jadey!"

_Sure you will_, Jade thinks as she hangs up the phone.

–

One of the few good things about being in the movie, Beck thinks, is that his best friend has been cast in a role as well and therefore gets to come with him. Well, one of his best friends, at least. Andre Harris is a fun, charismatic guy, and he makes the plane ride a lot more bearable, since Jamie isn't allowed to ride up in first class with him.

Except when he's talking about Jade West, that is.

"Hey, I don't know what you're complaining about," Andre says with a grin. "I mean, that's a pretty hot girl that you're in this movie with. Jade West, right? That girl is on _fire_."

"Yeah, but she's a brat," Beck complains. "I called her just to be nice and she stole the phone from her agent, told me to die in a hole, and hung up."

"Aha, sassy," Andre chuckles. Seeing the look on Beck's face, he stops laughing at once. "Seriously, dude, you're not exactly the most 'easy to handle' person either, so maybe you've got something in common. You just have to keep trying."

"I am trying," Beck moans, letting his head fall into his hands and winding his fingers through his hair in that way he always does when he's nervous. "She doesn't... she doesn't like _people_."

"You're obviously not trying hard enough, then." Andre grins at him easily. "Just keep trying, okay? I'm fairly sure that even Jade West has a soft side under all that mean."

"Just like a wicked witch has a soft side?" Beck groans under his breath.

"Hey, it fits!" Andre exclaims. "The Wicked Witch of the West. Aren't I clever? We could write a song with that!" He picks up his small guitar from under the seat in front of him and begins to strum. "There once was a Witch of the West, her nameee was (what?) Jade Westtt..."

"Oh my..." Beck mutters under his breath, embarrassed. He covers up his head with his arms so that no one will see his flaming face.

One of the flight attendants comes skittering down the aisle. "Sir," she says imperatively, "I'm going to have to ask you to keep it down. We've had many a complaint coming from this area of the plane."

"Yes, ma'am," Andre replies cheerfully, setting down his guitar. Grinning, he pats Beck on the back. "Just chillax, Beck. It's all gonna be chill."

"Yeah, I'm sure you'll all be chillaxing at my funeral." Beck lets out a low groan.

Andre's loud laugh attracts the attention of the flight attendant once again.

–

Jade clambers out of the taxi, carrying one suitcase behind her. There are four bags on her arms, weighing her down. She stumbles around like a maniac until she regains her footing. Embarrassed, she hisses "You could've _helped_ me," to Danny.

"Sorry, no can do," Danny says brightly, motioning to his collection of her bags that he's carrying. "It's hardly my fault that you insisted on bringing your entire wardrobe down here."

"I have to look _good_," Jade moans dramatically, leading the way into the hotel.

It's a fairly nice hotel, she supposes, big and glorious with a large, gorgeous chandelier. She can see herself staying there for the months that they're filming. With a grin, she marches up to the counter and taps a guy on the shoulder. "I need to check in. _Now_."

"Dude, I don't work here." The guy laughs. "Jade West, I'm assuming? Name's Andre Harris. I'll be in your movie too."

"Whatever." Jade rolls her eyes. "But yeah, I'm Jade West."

"That's a nice name," Andre compliments her.

"Uh, thanks." She forces a smile, not really in the mood for small talk, though Andre does seem fairly decent. It will be nice, having a decent person on the set to balance out Beck's irritating nature. "Can you tell me where I'm checking in, then?"

"The desk on the other side of the room." Andre points across to a wide, luxurious-looking desk. "Apparently you've got the room next to Beck. I'm sure he'll be thrilled about that."

Under her breath, Jade mutters something she's sure that Danny wouldn't be proud of. "You're kidding me," she hisses angrily.

"Hey, at least you aren't in the same room!" Andre grins at her. "Chill, girl, it'll all be fine."

"Yeah, whatever." Angrily, Jade storms over to the desk. "I'm Jade West, and I'd like to check in. Though I have a request. Can you _please_ move my room so that it's far away from wherever Beck Oliver is staying? That is, if you'd like to prevent a murder, because with the insurance and investigation charges I'm sure it'd be fairly expensive, or at the least, fairly inconvenient for your hotel. Unless, of course, you'd like the publicity."

The desk clerks just stare at her. At last, one of them clears her throat. "Sorry, no can do. The producers specifically requested that you two be put next to each other, and not moved under any circumstances."

She sighs angrily. Grabbing her key, she scowls. "_Thanks_." With that, she marches off, motioning for Danny to follow.

This is going to be a long two months.

–

Someone shakes Beck's shoulder. Turning over, he mutters "mmph", which just makes them shake him more urgently. What could be _so_ important? At last, he peels open his eyes to see Andre standing over him, looking angry. "Dude," he hisses. "The producers want you downstairs in ten minutes. They want you and Jade to have... well, a meeting of sorts."

"What?" Beck exclaims. He leaps out of bed, pulls on some clothes, combs down his bedhead, and runs down the stairs, hoping that he looks okay as not to embarrass himself on his first day.

Once he gets down, he hears someone snort "finally", and of course he figures out who _that_ is within two seconds. It's the same rude voice he'd heard on the phone. Sitting down, he hastily apologizes. "I'm sorry; I took a quick nap and it turned out to be... well, not all that quick."

"I see," one of the men says crisply. "You've still got a bit of toothpaste on your face."

Blushing, Beck wipes it off, and the man continues. "We've called both of you down here so that you can chat for a bit and get to know each other before shooting tomorrow. We expect that you'll stay here and talk for at least an hour or two. After all, that's what you're here for, right?"

He is most certainly not here for Jade West, he thinks, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Scowling, he turns to the girl in front of him and takes a moment to take her in. She is fairly good-looking – nice eyes, dark hair, fair, perfect skin, and she would probably have a nice smile. However, that still doesn't help the issue that he hates her. "Jade," he says, his voice tight. 

She frowns. "Beck."

–

**A/N: OKAY I KNOW THIS ISN'T WINNING THE POLL but I couldn't resist anyway (I'm going to write the winner as well so don't worry). This is going to be the first chapter of many (and wow I'm writing it fast like what). It's eventually going to have Beck/Jade but yeah. It's AU, obviously, and Beck and Jade are both superstars so.**

**Please, read and review and don't favorite/alert without reviewing. Your reviews mean the world to me, and they'll mean a faster update ;)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ambiance**

AU

_Chapter Two_

The man claps. "Good thing you so obviously are already acquainted. That means we won't need any introduction. And the _animosity_ between you two – by Dave, I can see why Tori Vega was so insistent that it be you two."

Jade's eyebrow shoots up dangerously. "_Tori _Vega?"

"Why, yes. She and Trina were so insistent that you two be the ones cast. Probably shouldn't have said that, should I?" He laughs dangerously. "Well, yes, anyway. Do stay here and chat for a while. We'll be watching."

At once, all of the men get up and march off, leaving the two actors to their own devices. Jade glares at him. "I don't want to be here."

"Neither do I," Beck says with a casual laugh. "It's a good thing that the scenes we're doing first involve hatred or whatever. Basically, we don't have to like each other."

"You forget the whole 'sexual tension' aspect," Jade grumbles, not even trying to meet his eyes. She scowled. "Something we considerably lack in."

"I'd like to think that I'm a good enough actor to fake it."

"I'm fairly sure that you're not."

Beck sighs, leaning over a bit. "Look, Jade, we're going to have to work in fairly close proximity, and it will be difficult if we're fighting all the time."

"I plan to avoid you as much as is humanly possible." Jade smiles slightly, a twisted, dark, sardonic smile. "Look, _Beck_, I don't enjoy your company and I see no point in faking tolerance for you. You're a complete idiot, as well as an arrogant loser, and I have nothing but contempt for you."

"Your vocabulary is impressive," Beck responds with a grin.

"I really hate everything about you," Jade replies coolly. "I have no idea how anyone can stand to work with you, much less date you. From what I've picked up on, you've dated up to three girls at once, am I right?"

The arrogant grin on Beck's face fades quickly. "You don't know _anything_ about me."

"I know everything I need to know, actually." Jade rolls her eyes. Turning around, Jade calls, "Van Cleef! Get me a soda. I'm not getting any younger!"

"High-maintenance much?" Beck remarks, raising an eyebrow. Jade turns her death glare upon him.

"As I said before, Oliver, they picked the worst person possible to play my 'love interest'. I really have no desire to kiss you. Besides, you're ugly, and I don't like ugly guys. So if you could kindly, I don't know, fall off a cliff..." She scowls noticeably.

"You're not exactly pleasing to the eye either," he retorts scathingly.

"Please." Jade rolls her eyes, flipping back her hair with one hand as if to show how very _pleasing_ _to the eye _she is. "I'm gorgeous."

"The goth look is so 2008." He smirks.

"You really shouldn't say things like that. It makes you sound even more stupid, because you obviously don't know a thing about fashion." Her piercing eyes fall onto his traditional plaid shirt and jeans, and she rolls her eyes. "Plaid shirts like that are hideous. _Honestly_. For such a famous actor, you have horrid fashion taste."

"Do you have to be so _rude_ all of the time?"

"Do you you have to be so stupid all of the time?"

"You're just plain mean; it's rather sad, actually."

"It's not sad. I'm merely honest; it's my thoughts that are mean. And it's better to let my thoughts out than let them simmer around in my mind. If I did that, I'd end up as a murderer. Well, maybe not, but I'd most assuredly end up in jail." Jade gives him a wide scowl, one that clearly shows her emotions toward their conversation.

"Interesting outlook on life, freak."

"Idiot."

"Weirdo."

"Loser."

Beck leans forward, resting his head on his palm and running a hand through his (luscious) hair with the other. "Why do you hate me so much, anyway?"

"Aside from the obvious," Jade begins contemptuously, "which is that you're an idiot, a player, and you think that you're the best thing since scissors – not true, by the way – you broke the heart of a friend of mine. And yes, before you say something stupid, I am entirely capable of having friends. I just don't _like_ you, and so I feel no obligation to be nice to you. Simple as that." She links her fingers, placing her entwined hands on her lap. "Are you going to say something, or are you just going to sit there all day with that dense expression on your face?"

"What friend?" Beck asks quietly. Of course, he's aware that he's (inadvertently) broken the heart of many a girl, but to hear it put so bluntly – it kind of hurts in a way he hadn't thought it would. Quietly, he bites down on your lip.

She narrows her eyes. "You know, I might have underestimated your acting abilities a bit. That wasn't bad. If I wasn't aware of your psychopathic lying tendencies, I might have actually believed that you were _concerned. _Anyway, I suppose you've conveniently forgotten about Emily Stevens?"

His eyes darken. "_You_ know _Emily_?"

"Childhood friends, Oliver. She came running to me when you, I don't know, broke her heart and stepped on it for good measure? I wouldn't have pegged Alyssa Vaughn as your type, but then again, I don't really know you, nor do I care to. Still, she is nothing compared to Emily, and you know it." She glares at him. "Basically, in case you've forgotten, you cheated on Emily with Alyssa Vaughn."

He sighs, sounding defeated. "No, I didn't."

"Oh, and now you're calling one of my friends a _liar_? My hatred for you is increasing more by the minute." Her fist is clenched, her eyes angry. "I think I know who to believe."

"I think you don't." His tone is low, challenging. "I didn't cheat on her."

Her eyes are piercing into him. When she finally speaks, her voice is nearly a growl. "I don't know who you're trying to fool."

"I'm telling the truth," he protests.

"Liar." Her eyes flicker. "Why don't you like me, then?" She takes a sip of the soda that Sinjin had brought for her at last, then she turns to glare at her assistant. "Took you long enough."

"That exactly." He motions to the terrified look on Sinjin's face as he skitters away. "You're high-maintenance and frankly, one of the worst actresses to work with. Yes, you're good at acting, but that doesn't give you the right to act like you rule the world."

"I do rule the world," she replies flippantly. "Besides, I'm not the only one who thinks that the world revolves around me." Her eyes bear into him, making it clear who she's speaking of.

"I don't, actually." To his immense surprise, his voice is calm and collected. "I just know that I'm good-looking and honestly, I don't consider that to be a bad thing."

"It is a bad thing if you're actually _not _good-looking." Her voice is scathing, and it leaves him wondering why she is so very resentful of his appearance. He _is_ good-looking; that much is undeniable, except apparently by her.

"You know what? I think you're in denial." Beck knows exactly what he's getting into; he knows that she might kill him for this. "I think you find me attractive."

"And I think that you're the most insufferable person I've _ever_ met," she replies, not denying it. "You know what, Beck?" Her voice is soft now. It makes her sound almost human. "This isn't going to work. We've so obviously got the animosity part down; there's no point in us 'practicing' or whatever you may call it any longer. I'll go to the director, explain that the scenes we're filming tomorrow or whenever would be shot best if we didn't speak with each other because we already hate each other and _that_ is something that needs no practice." She breathes at last. "I'm rather good at convincing. Have a horrible day, Oliver."

"Oh. All right. You too. See you tomorrow at the read-through." He doesn't think to dwell on why he feels slightly disappointed when she walks away, flipping her hair over her shoulder. He really doesn't want to think about why the disappointment increases when she doesn't come back.

Jade West does have a way of getting what she wants, after all.

–

Jade is woken up at an early hour, much to her dismay. Rolling over, she groans, "What do you _want_?"

"You have a read-through today, Jadelyn West," Danny says. "After your unsuccessful 'session' with Beck yesterday, I suggest that you show them all up today. That is, if you want this movie to be a success. Otherwise, you may not have anyone to order around anymore."

"Of course I want this movie to be a success. I just wish that Beck Oliver wouldn't be involved in the 'success' is all."

"Oh, by the way." Danny's eyes narrow. "Your little request – demand, shall I say – didn't do anything to soothe the producers' worries about the movie. Also, they're dead set on Beck Oliver playing the role of Zander, so your efforts are in vain. Honestly, I'd say if anyone gets thrown out of this movie, it's you."

Jade's eyes widen. "Really?"

"No, but you should probably start thinking like that so that you don't land yourself in a lot of trouble – which, for the record, I am _not_ getting you out of." He sighs. "Jade, I just... Beck's making an effort to be nice to you. Can't you do the same?"

"No." She picks up a brush, combing through her hair. "It's just that... I really can't bring myself to like him."

"Have you tried?"

"No. And I don't plan on it. Now leave me be. I need to get ready." She glares at him until he backs off.

Twenty minutes later, she arrives downstairs, her copy of the script in her hand. With a scowl, she determines that the only empty seat is next to the one and only Beck Oliver. Andre gives her an encouraging smile, but no one else seems to even notice she has arrived.

She clears her throat loudly.

"Yes?" one of the producers says, giving her a _look_.

"I've arrived."

"Good for you," Beck mutters under his breath, and that is all. Haughtily, Jade sits down, feeling thoroughly humiliated. This is just another thing to add to the list of reasons why she hates Beck Oliver. She really should start a list and see how long it is by the end of shooting.

They immediately launch into the reading. Of course, Beck and Jade have the hatred down-pat. It's so easy for her to fuel all of her anger, all of her hatred, into the lines that Kyra puts so perfectly.

"It's like you're oil and I'm water," Jade reads, her voice dark. "We don't fit, yet people are so intent on putting us together. And obviously I'm the more essential element."

"Water and oil aren't elements." Beck is quick to correct her. Well, technically, it's Zander, but Jade couldn't really care less. "Besides, I have time in my hands."

"Like I care." Jade is quick to add a snort there. She imagines that's what Kyra would do. (Or perhaps it's what she would do. She can't really tell a difference.)

"You should start caring." Beck's voice is angry now. "You don't care about _anything_, Kyra, and it makes it hard to work with you."

"Sometimes it seems like _you_ don't care either!" Jade hisses at last. "I care about people – about my friends – and you just pull everything off so seamlessly, like you couldn't care either way! When was the last time you told someone you cared about them?"

"It wasn't _that_ long ago." It's kind of scary, Beck decides, how very close Zander's character is like Beck himself, and how Kyra is quite a bit like Jade. He simply writes it off as good casting, because there is no way that he and Jade are _anything_ like the movie. They hate each other and that's that. "Besides, like I told you, the past is the future and the future is the past. I have no solid concept of time."

"Yeah, well, maybe you should look at yourself before you judge me, Mr. Time Man." Jade delivers this line perfectly, putting a lot of emotion into it. Then she pauses. "So, how was it? I mean, I know I was amazing, but I'm sure Beck wants feedback."

Beck just rolls his eyes, since he is a little eager to hear what they thought.

The director claps. "Amazing. You two have such tangible tension. It's like sparks are flying between the two of you."

Jade's eyes widen. Beck nearly spits out his mouthful of water.

"You've _got_ to be kidding me." Jade laughs nervously.

"No. It was really good. It was almost like you _were _the characters. I think you'll be wonderful together in the movie, though of course, we still have a while of the reading to go." The director's eyes narrow. Jade knows that this is typical procedure. They don't compliment anyone, don't get anyone's hopes up, because then their hopes can only be crushed.

And of course, all hopes are completely destroyed.

The thing is that it is harder than Jade had thought to act like she genuinely is in 'love' with Beck, because that stupid 'spark' is just not there. And when she has to say 'I love you' to him, it feels more like she's choking it out than genuinely saying it to someone she loves.

Beck's 'I love you' feels like it has come from a robot, and that robot is most assuredly _not_ a good actor, either.

"Well." Director Lane sounds nonplussed. "It seems like we've got a lot of work to do. You two have a _lot_ of issues that need working out before we get to the romance scenes."

"I just can't work with him," Jade says dramatically. "There's no spark."

"Actually," Andre butts in with a grin, "I think you guys would be cute together."

"Dude!" Beck glares at Andre. "You don't _honestly_ think that?"

"Actually, I do. And apparently, so does everyone else." Andre keeps grinning like a creepy stalker, much to Jade's dismay.

"Well, then, you're all idiots," she says simply. "I think we've done enough here. We start filming tomorrow, right?" Thankfully enough, it is the hatred scenes; nothing out of her comfort zone. She is comfortable insulting Beck, comfortable hating him. Somehow, she highly doubts that she will be comfortable kissing him, especially since those lips have probably touched a thousand other girls. (She has no idea why that bothers her, but it does.)

"Yes. We expect you to be punctual, Jadelyn." Their glare says that they're tired of her being late. She rolls her eyes. Obviously they can't make the movie without her. It might actually be a bit better without Beck, at least in her opinion.

She thinks that maybe she should think of a way to make him late instead for once.

A wicked smile on her face, she dashes to the lobby. With a pleading smile, she walks up to the desk. "I'm sorry, but I've lost my key. I'm in room 312. Do you think you can give me an extra one?"

"I thought you were in room 314, Miss Jadelyn?" the clerk inquires, raising an eyebrow.

She does the same back. Why anyone bothers arguing with her, she'll never know. "No, Beck and I traded, actually. We're oh-so-close and all that." She hopes that the fake smile on her face is convincing.

"All right then," the clerk says with a suspicious frown. "I don't believe you, so I'm sorry, but I can't give you the extra key. You are only to receive keys for your assigned room, or so says the management."

Frowning, she realizes that she's going to have to do this the hard way. She then turns her frown upside down, so to speak. "Oh, that's all right; I understand. Beck and I will just trade back then. See you!"

Quickly, she rushes to the elevator. It seems to take forever, and it plays the most annoying song she's ever heard, but it's all worth it once she gets upstairs. Leaning down, she pulls one of her hairpins out of her messy bun and begins to pick the lock.

_Hurry_, she chides herself. _You've got no time to waste._

Much to her dismay, it takes a longer amount of time than she'd originally thought, but thankfully Beck doesn't catch her. Once it finally swings open, she dashes in, clutching her scissors tightly in her hand. His clothes are spread out neatly beside his bed. She tilts her head to the side. _Too easy_. She unzips her purse and takes out her pair of leather gloves and her favorite pair of scissors.

_Showtime._

–

Beck Oliver is an organized guy. He sets his clothes out the night before and always double-checks to make sure it's exactly what he wants to wear. So, the night before shooting starts, he is sure to double-check. And when he does, he realizes that his clothes are full of holes.

It takes him less than a minute to deduce who it was.

_Jade._

Mumbling something that's not very nice under his breath, he pulls out another t-shirt and pair of jeans. Thankfully, it'd just been a polo that she'd shredded, but the threat was there all the same. She was trying to make sure that he would be late the next day.

Quickly, he makes his way to the bathroom, where he discovers she's stolen his shampoo and soap. He dials up the desk and asks for an extra of both, letting them assume that he just uses a lot of both and therefore is a stinky guy. (He has no idea why he's covering for Jade, other than the fact that he's just naturally a nice guy.)

He goes to bed early that night and gets up early the next morning as well. Fortunately, she hasn't done anything else to his possessions. He is sure to confront her in the cab, though. (Of course, Director Lane has demanded they share a cab.)

"What do you think you're playing at?" he hisses under his breath.

She gives him her best angelic expression and says, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Even he has to admit that she looks kind of pretty, but now is hardly the time for that. "You _broke _into my _room _and _vandalized_ my _things_."

"Have you got proof? Really, Beck, you shouldn't go around accusing innocent girls of crimes. I'm the best person I know, honestly." She smirks, crossing her arms across her chest, probably think that it's a clear victory on her part.

She's wrong.

He holds up her necklace – a long, thin string with a J on it. "I don't really know many other girls who wear a necklace _just like yours_, do I?" Slowly, he gives a small, thin smile.

"You absolute _jerk_!" Jade hisses through her teeth. "Give me my necklace now."

"Nope." Beck grins now, unable to help himself. "I'll give it to you after I extract a little something from you."

"What could you possibly want?" Jade retorts, crossing her arms angrily across her chest.

"Wait." He pulls out his PearPhone and goes to the 'Record' app. With a grin, he says, "You have to confess that you vandalized my stuff."

"No way!" Jade protests.

"Either that or I keep this necklace." Beck's hand closes around the small 'J'. "What's it going to be, Jade?"

Finally, she nods. "Whatever. Fine. Press your stupid 'record' button before I get even angrier." He does so, and she says slowly, "I'm Jade freaking West, and I vandalized Beck's stupid clothing, so yeah, there's my idiotic confession. You can stop recording now."

He does so, and with a smile, he turns the necklace back over to Jade. "Now, Jade, if you try anything like this again, that recording gets shown to the movie company, and while they may not fire you, they certainly won't be pleased."

"Recordings can be faked," she reminds him.

"Too bad I was videoing." He shrugs. "It's a bit harder to fake a personal video, don't you think?"

"You are my least favorite person in the world. I hate you. I'd rather like to roast you over a fire and feed you to a T-Rex for lunch."

"Creative."

"Isn't it?"

–

Once they get to the movie set, it seems that they're nearly ready to start, which Jade claims is 'stupid and an embarrassment to the entire Hollywood industry'. Sadly enough, they whisk her away into makeup anyway and get started applying powder and other utter crap to her face. She thinks it's stupid. Obviously, she's already gorgeous without it.

The funniest part is that they plaster the stuff on Beck as well, though he doesn't seem to mind it. It does give her leverage for teasing him anyway.

After makeup, they're thrown onto the set. Jade reads over her lines one last time, practicing how she's going to say each one. Beck just tosses his onto a table.

"You need all the practice you can get, Oliver," Jade hisses, glaring at him. "Knowing you, you'll probably mess up on all of your lines."

"Knowing you, you'll probably be a jerk to me," Beck responds, raising an eyebrow. "Oh wait! That already happened."

"You're needed on the set," a helper (Bailey, Jade thinks) stutters nervously. "They won't be happy if they're kept waiting..."

Jade just rolls her eyes and stomps off. Once she finally gets to the set, she's whisked over to where they're beginning to practice her movements. She's told to walk and stop and start again, until they're finally satisfied and all the tape is laid.

"Go through it once with no camera or props," the director encourages, and of course, no one says no to him.

Jade rolls her eyes. She's hardly an amateur, but she begins anyway. She walks toward Beck, pretending to be humming to herself, and then runs into him 'accidentally'.

"Hey!" she yells, glancing down at her 'ruined' shirt. "Watch where you're going, freak!"

"Actually, I have a name. Zander Daniels, at your service." He grinned slyly. "Isn't this quite the cliché beginning? You know, we don't have to start here."

"I have no clue what you're talking about, Daniels, nor do I care to know." She pushes at his shoulder. "Let me _through_."

Then Beck holds out his hands, which, out of context, looks entirely ridiculous. Of course, Jade has to take five steps back, then she looks confused. "What did you just _do_, freak?"

"Told you already that I'm not a freak." Beck grins. "Have fun with your nice shirt. It's all clean now."

"All right!" The director claps his hands. "Nice job. Now, when we're shooting, Jade's going to have to switch shirts quickly between takes. Someone get on that. While this scene will rely primarily on cinematic editing and CGI effects, we're going to need some brilliant acting from the two of you as well."

"Of course," Beck promises. "Though I can't say the same for Jade."

Jade glares at him.

–

The day goes much like that, with fighting both on and off-camera. They do what feels like a million takes and only get one scene finished.

"Let's call it a day," someone says wearily that afternoon. Jade heads to her trailer, giving Beck a don't-bother-me glare.

Of course, he takes that as an invitation to come knock on the door of her trailer.

"Can't you see I'm busy?" she snarls, her lip curled threateningly.

"Can't you see I don't care?" Beck rolls his eyes. "Look, Jade, I'm tired of fighting."

"I'm not." Jade holds on to the edge of the door, determined as always. "And please get this through your thick head – I never will be tired of fighting. I'm always going to dislike you. Now please, if you would, leave me alone. I'm in no mood to talk to anyone, let alone you."

She slams the door in his face. When she opens it a few minutes later, he's gone.

She can't say she's relieved.

–

**A/N: important things:**

**I'm sorry that I didn't reply to reviews! I replied to like two and then got tired, so yeah, I'm really sorry. Thank you all so very much for reviewing! I'm glad most of you like the idea and are excited for the story.**

**Please don't fave/alert without reviewing. Please?**

**My knowledge of filming/cinematography is limited, so I'm reallyreally sorry about errors! I'm doing some research and all so hopefully it's not too off.**

**I think they're a bit OOC but whatever. This is pretty fun to write anyway.**

**Please review :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**Ambiance**

AU

_Chapter Three_

Filming the next day is incredibly awkward, much to Jade's dismay. The hatred is still tangible between Jade and Beck, and between their characters, but the prospect of their romance still looms forebodingly in the future.

At lunch, Jade and Beck are forced to eat at a table together, which is all the more awkward. Thankfully, Andre is there to break up the stormy silence.

"Hey, guys!" he crows, his face lit up. "You were both really good today, though it got a little boring watching you do the same thing over and over again."

"Yeah, well, it was even _more_ boring doing it over and over again." Beck groans.

"Agreed." Jade frowns into her balsamic vinaigrette salad. "Though it was hardly _my_ fault that Beck doesn't know how to properly use facial expressions." She scowls at her salad. "Van Cleef! Bring me the croutons, please."

"Do you always do that?" Beck stares at her as if she's insane.

Looking up from her salad, Jade asks briskly, "Do what?"

"Demand things from other people. It's rude." He raises an eyebrow at her. "You could at least say please."

"As if." Jade rolls her eyes in response.

Andre clears his throat, looking like he's trying to tell them to shut up already. "So, um, how are you guys liking the set and all?"

"The set's nice, so long as nothing falls on _me_ and kills me. Then again, if anything falls on Beck, that wouldn't be so bad..." The edges of her mouth curve up into a smile. "Come to think of it, I might like the set more if something fell on Beck."

"_Rude_." Beck stabs at his steak and glares at Jade. "Really, Jade, we're going to have to be working together for a while, can't you at least _try_ to make it tolerable?"

"Can't you just _try_ not to be an idiot all of the time?" Her eyes darken as she glares at Beck and stabs at her salad.

"I like pickles!" Andre exclaims, trying to ease the tension. Of course, it doesn't work. Jade's still filled with rage toward her unbecoming co-star. Standing up, she holds her head high and pulls the lid off of her iced coffee. With a small half-smirk, she dumps the drink on top of Beck's head.

Her co-star sits there for a moment, the drink dripping off of his head and into his eyes. His mouth is open in surprise, like he honestly hadn't thought she'd do it – _of course she'd do it, what wouldn't she do_ – and his hair clings to his face, wet, like a little puppy dog. He actually looks an awful lot like a little puppy dog.

Then, at last, he reacts. He grabs both of her wrists, violently pulling her closer to him, which admittedly makes her heart pound a bit faster, probably because she's scared that he'll murder her. Or something.

"Look, Jade." His voice is steady, but seething with rage. "That was too far. You've gone too far. I am not dealing with this. I shouldn't _have_ to." He releases one of her wrists, but keeps a steady grip on the other. "You're coming with me."

"What if I don't want to?" If both of her arms were free, she'd cross her arms across her chest, but since she doesn't really have that option, she just glares at him defiantly.

His eyes soften just a bit, but he still uses a hard voice as he says, "Sometimes you've got to do things you don't want to. Working with you, for example."

"Idiot." She walks with him anyway as he pulls her off and tries to pretend that his skin doesn't feel nice against hers, that his warmth doesn't send a strange sensation down her spine.

Yeah, sometimes it's nice being an actress.

–

He keeps holding onto her wrist as they walk. Not because he thinks she'll escape, because he doesn't – she's hardly an animal, and she knows that what she did was going too far. No, he holds onto her wrist because he doesn't particularly want to let go.

Yes, this is probably a bad thing, he determines, but she's not jerking away like he'd supposed she would, and she probably thinks that he is simply holding on to keep her in line. As long as she thinks that, no harm can come from it.

"Where are you taking me?" she demands angrily after they've been walking for a bit.

"You'll see." He narrows his eyes, releasing her wrist at last but glaring at her as a warning. "Just follow me, and don't run off."

"I'm not a child, Beckett. I wasn't planning on it."

He ignores the fact that she's using his real name and continues walking until they finally get to the main trailer. Before he walks in, he shakes his head, splattering coffee all over Jade's face.

"Ugh!" Jade wipes at her face dramatically. "You _imbecile_! Now my face is covered in _coffee_."

"Yeah, well, my head's covered in it, so I guess we're even." He grins at her before pushing open the door. He greets the director with a smile. "Director Lane."

"Beckett! What happened to you?" The man's eyes widen as he takes in Beck's soaking wet hair and face.

Rolling his eyes, Beck motions to Jade. "She _dumped coffee_ on my head."

Jade rolls her eyes. "Don't be so dramatic. It wasn't even a full cup."

Director Lane, however, just makes a disapproving noise and motions for the two of them to sit down. The two teenagers quickly oblige, though Beck is sure to keep himself as far from Jade as possible.

"Look, guys," Director Lane says slowly, "I don't know if you've realized this, but the two of you are working together on a romance movie. That requires cooperation and at least some sort of peace. We cannot – and I repeat, _cannot_ – have you two fighting all the time. You know I think you're both brilliant actors, but if you're going to be like this the whole shoot then we can easily start the movie over with new actors."

Looking over, Beck realizes hat the look of terror on Jade's face is nearly the same as the look of terror on his own face. Biting his lip, he says to Lane, "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me." He motions to Jade, ostensibly to get him to apologize to her.

With a sigh, Beck tells her, "I'm sorry for antagonizing you and... what do you call it... being an idiot or whatever."

"I'm sorry for dumping coffee on your head and being a jerk," Jade deadpans. "I'll try to keep my beverages away from your head next time."

The room is quiet for a moment before both Beck and Jade burst into uncontrollable giggles. (Looking over, Beck decides that Jade is a lot less scary when she's smiling.)

"Well, looks like my work here is done." Lane raises an eyebrow. "I do hope that these petty arguments will stop from now on, though."

"Most assuredly." Jade stands up, all traces of laughter and euphoria wiped completely off of her face. "I have to go now," she says, though it probably could have been anything, because she mumbled it so quickly he couldn't really make it out. "Bye." Then she flees quickly out the door.

"Is she always like that?" Beck asks, despite his attempts to hold it in. "I mean, as soon as we start getting along, as soon as she starts to have fun, she leaves. I don't _get _her!"

"Yeah, well, neither do I," Director Lane assures him. "She's a tough girl, but she has a good heart. Sometimes I think she's only like she is because she's trying to keep herself from getting hurt. .;"

"Somehow, I doubt that." Beck's tone is cold and judgmental. With a half-smile, he heads toward the door. "I should probably be off now too. Have to get all of this coffee out of my hair so it looks just as gorgeous for shooting tomorrow. Bye!"

As he heads back to his trailer to pick up his stuff before they're bussed back to the hotel, he thinks. _She has a good heart_. There is absolutely no way that Jade West, the Ice Queen, the girl he has hated since Day 1 has a good heart. It's just not possible. She's evil, freakish, and a complete jerk to anyone and everyone.

_Impossible, _he reminds himself.

It's scary how plausible her secret nice side is starting to seem.

It's also sad that he's so determined to see the good in everyone, including Jade West.

–

The next few days of shooting pass uneventfully, save for a few minor accidents and more than a little bit of unresolved awkwardness. Beck and Jade don't fight any more, at least, but they don't speak aside from small, petty conversations and, of course, when they're shooting together. Sometimes Jade thinks that she'd rather have their inherent hatred back than have no interaction at all. (Then she pushes that thought away, because _no_, she doesn't miss Beck Oliver, not in the least. He's simply a playboy, an idiotic dunderhead that she tolerates on a daily basis, not someone whose presence she _enjoys_.)

She talks to Andre more than anyone, but a lot of times during their conversations Andre will stop and look at her, just _stare_ at her, and his eyes are filled with pity. It makes her feel uncomfortable.

One day, when she's utterly and completely bored, she calls Cat. "I'm bored."

"That's not good! Where's Beck?" Cat asks, naivety evident in her tone. Honestly, why would Jade be with Beck? Cat should know by now that Jade doesn't like Beck, not in the least.

"I don't know, nor do I care. I've told you before that I don't like Beck Oliver. Please respect that." She tries not to note the way her voice (and perhaps her opinion of him) isn't as solid as she would like.

"Why not?" Cat's voice sounds sad. "I thought you guys would be BFFs by now."

"Yeah? Well, you thought wrong." That's a bit harsh, she decides. Cat's a bit like a cute little kitten; no one wants to hurt her feelings because it just feels wrong and makes you feel like a horrible person. "Look, Cat, I know you're just thinking of what's best for me but I really cannot bring myself to like him."

"You're not trying hard enough," Cat protests. "I think he likes you. Maybe if you just gave him a chance..."

"I don't _want_ to like Beck Oliver!" she hisses, and there she has it. The truth is out. She's starting to like him, he's starting to grow on him, but it's not supposed to work that way because she _hates_ him, right?

"You... why?" Cat's voice breaks a little. "Jadey, he's a nice guy! And I know how you want a boyfriend. I mean, I know you think Xavier's nice, but he's just not your type... I know your type. And I think Beck is!"

"He is not." Jade's voice is low now. She doesn't feel the urge to continue the conversation any longer, so she deliberately presses the end button and listens to the sound of silence in her ear.

_I do _not _like Beck Oliver or even tolerate his presence. He's an idiot._

She tries to make herself believe it.

–

Beck isn't having a particularly wonderful day, so when Andre walks into the trailer, he considers pulling a Jade and yelling at him to go away. But then again, Beck's not Jade, not in the _least_, so he just sits up and smiles. "Hey, dude. What are you doing here?"

"Look, I need to talk to you," Andre says apologetically, spreading out his arms. "I know that you and Jade aren't the best of friends, but seriously, dude, you don't have to go so far as to stop talking to her completely."

"That's the only way for us not to fight." _One. Two. Three_. He counts down silently, hoping that it'll help him to push away the anger. _Four. Five. Six._

"I don't believe that." Andre grins over at him. "You know, if you'd give her a chance... you two have a lot more in common than you'd like to think."

_I don't want to talk about Jade. Jade is a brat. She dumped coffee on my head_. "I don't know about that," Beck explains, shaking his head. "I'm not a brat."

"Hey, now. She's really an okay girl when you get past the harshness and all of that. I think she's just.. confused," Andre supplies, sitting down on Beck's bed. "And I really, honestly don't believe that you two 'hate each other' as much as you claim to. I think that you're both stubborn and you're determined not to like each other. It's all an act. You're both just really good actors."

For some reason, he doubts that Jade is _that_ good an actress, but he doesn't protest. Instead, he asks the question that has been plaguing his mind for quite a while now. "Do you think that Jade has a good heart?"

Andre seems to think about it for a moment. His eyebrows crease in thought. "Yeah, man, I'm pretty sure she does. Under all those fronts she tries to put up... I think she really does care about a few people. And I know that if she does care for you, you ain't gonna need any insurance. She's got that covered."

Beck nods. _No. What has she ever done for you? She's tried to ruin your life, cut up your clothes; heck, she's gone so far as to dump coffee on your head. You have no reason to think that she has a 'soft side' underneath all of that meanness._

Instead of something about how much he dislikes her, though, what comes out is "So, where do you think she'd be right now?"

_No, bad Beck_. He's not actually going to find her, is he? That'd be one of the stupidest decisions in his life so far, and honestly, he has made a lot of stupid decisions.

"I think she'd be..." He trails off, tapping her chin. "In her trailer, I guess. That's where she normally is, at least. Are you going to find her? Because you should, dude. It'd be a gesture of goodwill or whatever you call it. Either way, it will be nice to have you talking again, cause it's gotten slightly boring without your constant arguing." Andre laughs.

Beck has to laugh too. "Yeah. It really has."

Despite his mind's constant pleading for him not to go, he ends up shrugging on a jacket and walking out into the pouring rain, just to go see her, the bane of his existence, the girl who is intent on making his life as bad as she can. The selfish girl, the beautiful girl, the determined girl... he makes himself stop there. This is no time for him to be going soft on Jade West, of all people.

Maybe Jade's right, he thinks as he walks through the rain. Maybe he really is an idiot.

Frowning, he raps on the door nonetheless.

–

When Jade heard the rapping, she thought at first that it had to be a serial killer or maybe the director. Perhaps it could be Andre, though she highly doubts that Andre would walk through the rain just to come see her. It _is_ a possibility, she supposes. When she pulls open the door, though, it is none of those.

Beck Oliver is standing in front of her, looking, once again, like a little lost puppy with his wet hair and big eyes. Tentatively, he smiles. "Hey."

"What do you want?" she demands, crossing her arms in front of her chest. She doesn't invite him to come in, because it really was his decision to come to her trailer in the rain. Besides, he's already wet, he might as well get as thoroughly soaked as possible, just to show him what a stupid decision he is making.

"You." He coughs, obviously realizing how very awkward that sounds. "I mean, to talk to you."

"Yeah, well, talk." She rolls her eyes.

"No. Just. Come outside, will you? We'll go for a walk." He looks so very hopeful that Jade imagines rejecting him will be much like rejecting Cat. It'll be like stepping on a little lost puppy.

Sighing, she hisses, "No. I am _not_ going for a walk in the rain, you idiot."

He looks hurt, so she rolls her eyes. Finally, he speaks again. "Come on, Jade. Do you want to spend the rest of filming not so much as speaking to each other?"

"Yes." She blinks, trying to convey that this is _not_ something she's thought about, when really it's something she thinks about a lot. Maybe more than a lot.

He is finally starting to look uncomfortable with the situation. At last, he just shakes his head and grabs her hand. "Come on."

"I am _not_ going outside." She probably sounds – and looks – like an insolent little child, but really, she couldn't care less. She does _not_ want to go for a walk in the rain (something that a couple would do) with Beck Oliver. She reminds herself that he is the boy that broke her friend's heart, the playboy, the 'Casanova', and she hates him. _He said he didn't__ break her heart._ Lies.

"Yes, you are." It seems Beck has discovered her weak point – the only way to get her to comply is to continually command her, unless you're an authority figure, then you should probably say the opposite. She struggles in his grip, but finally rolls her eyes.

"Fine. I'll go."

"Knew it." He grins at her. "Grab a jacket. It's rather wet out here."

"Really? I hadn't noticed. Thank you for that riveting announcement!" With a small groan, she tugs on a jacket and follows Beck into the pouring rain.

"This is one of the stupidest things I've ever done," she informs him coldly. "If I catch a cold, you'll be in so much trouble."

"I'm okay with that." His confidence is one of the things about him that she secretly admires, so she has to hide her smile. Secretly, she reminds herself. Not that she'd ever let _him_ know about it. His ego would blow up to the size of the Empire State Building.

"I figured you would be." Her tone is still cold, which makes her happy. "See, this is why you are strange. You want to get in trouble, which is very stupid."

"No. I just... I don't know, it doesn't bother me. Mom says I'm a rebel." He flips his hair out of his eyes with a grin. "You know, I wasn't even supposed to become an actor in the first place. My parents think that it's a waste of time and that 'I'm not bringing in enough money.' Though really, I'm an A-list actor. I'm not sure how I can get much more money." He gives a small, bitter laugh.

Jade knows exactly how he feels. She's only been told since, oh, what, the beginning of her _life_ that acting's a waste of time and it can only end badly for her. Nonetheless, she really doesn't want to talk about her strained relationship with her father, nor does she want to talk about her overprotective mom and how she had to run away from both of them in order to become a successful actress.

She doesn't want to talk about how she'd been paid zero attention growing up. Well, unless she did something _bad_, because then they were all up in her business, asking what made her do this. Couldn't they see? Didn't they get it?

"Jade?" Beck's curious voice snaps her out of her reverie.

"Yeah. I guess I just know how you feel." Her voice is flat, emotionless, but it puts a stupid smile on Beck's face anyway.

"Oh, what have we here?" he exclaims, staring at her with those stupid puppy-dog eyes. "Is this the infamous Jade West attempting _empathy_?"

"Shut up," she murmurs, shoving her hands forcibly into her coat pockets and hoping he'll take a hint. One thing she's noticed in her eighteen years, though, is that boys are incredibly bad at taking hints.

"And for me! Her least favorite person in the world," he continues, not giving her a break at all. "The boy whose clothes she cut up."

"I still have those scissors, you know," she remarks darkly. "If you want, I'd be happy to shred up the rest of your clothes. Just let me know by _continuing to tease me _and talking about things I so obviously don't want to talk about."

"Fine," Beck says, but the smile doesn't leave his face. "You're shivering."

"Well, yes!" Jade exclaims, giving him one of those _oh really_ stares. "This is a thin, cloth jacket and I'm soaking wet. Obviously I'm not going to be that warm. Really, for an idiot, you're especially dense. It's sickening."

"Do you want my jacket?" He offers, tugging at the sleeve of his jacket.

She closes her eyes. _No_. She doesn't want his jacket. She doesn't want to be out here with him as the rain pours down around them. In fact, she has a feeling that her makeup is running. But for whatever reason, she finds herself muttering "Yes."

The scratchy fabric feels rough against her skin, but at least she stops shivering. Frowning, she glances over at Beck, who looks completely comfortable in his plaid shirt and jeans. She rolls her eyes again. The jacket has a strange smell, she notices with a frown. It's not a bad smell, not by any means, just an unfamiliar smell. Something that doesn't smell like anything she's smelt before.

Glancing over, she realizes that this is what Beck smells like. It's strange. Everything is strange.

With a half-frown, Beck clears his throat. "So I was thinking," he says warmly. "Would you want to – I don't know, try to be friends? I mean, you're not as bad as I thought you were." He gives a small, awkward laugh.

Friends. With Beck Oliver. No. She hates him; she despises him with every inch of her being. Or does she? Her mind is racing out of control, and she doesn't like it, not at all.

With a frown, she takes off, her legs driving her all the way back to her trailer. All she can think of is _Beck_ and how he could possibly want to be friends with _her _when all she's been to him is mean. Perhaps it's a revenge plan, she decides, some twisted way of ruining her. But no, she's not going to fall for it. She is much more clever than he could ever hope to be.

No way is she falling for some idiot's revenge plan.

Except, she realizes as she pulls his coat tighter around her shoulders, she kind of already has fallen into his stupid plan.

She fishes around in her drawer until she finds her phone. Quickly, she presses the second contact on her list. "Johnson," she says, shivering. "I'm going to need a make-up touchup."

"Have you been out in the rain?" Johnson questions, sounding a bit concerned.

"Yes, I've been out in the rain," she answers. Before he can respond to that, she adds quickly, "No, _don't ask_. It's complicated and I really do not want to talk about it. Send someone over immediately. Some warm soup would be nice as well." Remembering what Beck had said about it being rude to order people, she adds hastily, "_Please_."

The last thing she hears before Johnson hangs up is "I think that Beck kid is a good influence on her."

–

**A/N: **

**Wow, that was a lot of Jade. Don't worry; we'll have a lot more Beck next chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it anyway and don't think it's moving too fast. (Cause really they're not even friends yet, lol.)**

**Thanks so much for your reviews! I may not reply to all of them, but let me just tell you that I appreciate them and all of you so, so much. The review count went down a bit this chapter, so just reiterating – reviews mean faster updates and more motivation on my part ;D Please don't fave/alert without reviewing! If you can add it to your favorites, surely you have a word or two to say about it?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ambiance**

AU

_Chapter Four_

Andre laughs. "You think that Beck attempted to befriend you _because_he wanted revenge on you?" He laughs again, a harsh sort of laugh that she hasn't really heard on him before. It makes her tense up.

"Well, _yeah_," she replies in annoyance. "I believe that people are guilty until proven innocent. Also, I've never been anything but mean to him. Why would he randomly be nice to me? It doesn't work that way!" She stares at him, her eyes wide. It is impossible that he would be nice to her, absolutely impossible. This all has to be part of some sort of complex revenge plot.

"Maybe you could be nice to him back," Andre suggests, grinning from ear to ear.

"NO!" she roars, sighing and falling back onto her bed. "Look, why are you even here?"

"Because Beck was freaking out," Andre responded, raising an eyebrow at her. "Contrary to popular belief, he _does_ really wanna be friends with you, girl. Even though I can't really see why..." When she raises a threatening eyebrow at him, he hastily finishes with a quick, "Kidding, kidding. But seriously, you could stand to be nicer to the dude."

"And he could stand to get a haircut, but that's obviously not happening," she retorts scathingly.

"Jade," Andre reprimands, crossing his arms across his chest. "Seriously."

"Fine," she says with a scowl. "I'm serious."

"Okay, so I'll just go get Beck and we'll straighten out this whole mess..." Andre tells her brightly, edging slowly toward the doorway. Probably he doesn't want to deal with her alone.

"NO!" Jade roars again, moving quickly toward him. "No, way too embarrassing. Just... let me work this out."

"How?" Andre asks, leaning against the wall.

"Does he like coffee?" Jade inquires.

"Well, yeah, but I don't see how..." Andre trails off, blinking in confusion.

She sighs impatiently. Like most intelligent people, she doesn't have time for the impudence of 'normal people', so Andre is a bit of a setback. "Just get Beck to meet me here tomorrow. No more questions. See you then."

–

Jade West is handing him coffee. _Jade West_ is handing him coffee. Of all the things that had run through his head when Andre said, "Dude, Jade wants to try to make it up to you, so meet her at her trailer before filming", this had not even crossed his mind. First, he actually _likes_ coffee, and second, this is sort of nice, and he has never known Jade West to be nice. To be honest, he'd expected the worst after their little rendezvous two days previous.

With a small smile, he walks over and takes the coffee from her. "Thanks," he says brightly.

"Yeah, whatever," Jade says darkly, staring at him. "Now do you forgive me or whatever?" It's her extremely odd way of asking for forgiveness, but he can tell that she's actually trying and that's worth something, in a strange sort of way.

"Are you going to try anything else?" he inquires, crossing his arms across his chest.

She squirms, which makes him slightly suspicious. After all, when Jade West squirms and looks guilty, you'd best fear for your life, because it most likely means that she's done something unspeakably bad. "How about you forgive me tomorrow?"

"_Jade_," he says in a threatening tone, but fear is already crippling him. She's the only one who can invoke this sort of fear in him – after all, he is chill, brave Beck Oliver, not scaredy-cat Beck Oliver. It's fairly scary how easily she can toss that aside.

"It's nothing that bad," she tells him in an innocent tone, which only fuels his fear, because Jade West is not innocent in the least. "Seriously. Um, just come see me tomorrow and we'll talk things out, all right?"

"Jade!" he calls, but she's already walking away with this evil sort of smile on her face. Groaning, he dials a number quickly on his phone and waits for someone to pick up on the other end.

"Jamie," he says gratefully as soon as she picks up. "This is sort of a heavy request, but – "

"Look, Beck honey, I'm sorry, but I'm currently in a very important meeting with the film producers," Jamie informs him apologetically. "I'll call you back later, all right? All right."

She hangs up then, and Beck groans. Frowning, he dials the number to his trailer and hopes someone will pick up.

"Hey!" comes a voice. "Yo, Beck's not here right now, so maybe you could call back – "

"Andre!" Beck yelps gratefully. "Dude, why are you in my RV?"

"I left my jacket in here the other day and it's _cold_," Andre tells him, giving a shivering sound as if to emphasize his jacket. "What do you want, bro?"

"Has Jade been in there recently?" Beck questions cautiously. He highly doubts it – after all, Jade had seemed awfully guilty when they were talking, which he supposes means that she had set up whatever it was beforehand.

"Nah, man." Andre doesn't seem to think the question is weird at all, which does nothing to qualm Beck's fears. "Nobody's been in here but me. Oh, by the way, I ate your chocolate eggs. Why, though?"

Beck groans – those chocolate eggs were his favorites. Then he frowns and says, "I dunno; she seemed pretty suspicious to me. So no booby traps went off when you walked in or anything?"

"No," Andre says lightly. "I just walked in, chillaxed, ate some of your chocolate eggs, and looked for my jacket. Nothing bad has happened to me yet."

"All right," Beck replies dubiously. "Listen, don't leave just yet. I don't want to be alone in that RV in case Jade decides to kill me or whatever."

"Look, she's not a murderer," Andre tells him with a serious expression. "She may be a jerk of sorts, and kind of – I don't know, mysterious and creepy – but she's not a murderer."

"I was kidding," Beck tells him. "But seriously, don't leave."

–

Jade wakes up in the morning to the sound of someone pounding on her door.

A smirk making its way across her face, she wanders sleepily over to the door and pulls it open for a very angry-looking Beck Oliver. Beck storms in, a towel on his head, looking like some sort of odd woman from a different century. A shockingly green piece of hair sticks out from the top of his head, and Jade has to resist the urge to giggle. Never has she seen the completely composed actor looking so completely unraveled, and in a strange sort of way, she enjoys it.

"Why hello there, Oliver," she greets him, her blasé tone proving her to be unconcerned. "Is something wrong?"

"Why don't you tell me?" Beck spits, fingering the piece of bright green hair. "You slipped _green dye _into my shampoo. That is _not_ – and I repeat, _not_ – okay."

"Would you chill?" Jade replies, rolling her eyes and pressing her head back into her pillow.

"No!" Beck roars. "I will _not_ chill. I've been nothing but civil to you since you arrived, and you've been nothing but horrible to me! Even before, I could tell through the interviews that you were nothing but a brat, thinking you're entitled to everything when you're _not_ and thinking that you're better than everyone else when you're honestly not that great of an actress. You're just a spoiled brat, Jade West."

She just stares at him. Of course, everything he'd said was true, every single bit of it, but she doesn't want to admit that, so she just stares at the ground. The weirdo doesn't show any sign of leaving, though, much to her dismay. It's as if he's waiting for her to stick up for herself, to show him that he's not as bad as he thought she was, and the truth is that she's every bit as bad as he thinks, so there's no way that she can prove that. No way whatsoever.

At last, after quite a bit of internal turmoil, she glances up at him and says, "Cold water."

"Huh?" Beck has relaxed his stiff stance a bit, slipping back into his normal, relaxed way of standing. She takes that as a good sign.

Closing her eyes, she repeats, "Cold water. The green hair dye comes out with cold water, you idiot. I knew we had filming today, so I wasn't going to use anything permanent." Her voice has an edge to it, as if he should already know this, or at the very least stop assuming the worst of her.

She has no idea why she cares what he thinks of her. After all, she doesn't really care about what anyone _else_ thinks of her. But for some reason, she wants him to know that she's not all bad, that she can be considerate on some occasions if she likes the person.

Beck stares at her. Then he gives a slow nod. "Well, thanks for that."

He doesn't seem to have entirely forgiven her, though, because he makes a show of stomping at the door and slamming it behind him – typical actor, Jade thinks. Once he's gone, though, she buries her head under her blankets and tries to remind herself of why she hates Beck Oliver.

The reasons, she realizes, are starting to become few and far between.

–

Beck Oliver is confused.

This, contrary to popular opinion, is not something that happens all that often. Of course, he occasionally becomes confused, but usually it's over something trivial, like math or girl problems. And while, of course, Jade West _is_ a girl, she's most assuredly not the typical girl that he deals with.

And therefore, this is an entirely new situation.

Of course, he _had_ meant every word that he'd said. He'd always thought her to be a brat, and was therefore predisposed to dislike her the first time that they'd met. And she had done little to disprove his theory of her being spoiled and unlikable. But a completely horrible person would not tell him how to get the bright green hair dye out of his hair, so he supposes that this is more in support of Andre's theory – that Jade West actually does have a soft side, buried deep inside of her.

He doesn't really know how to handle this new information. After weeks of thinking that she's a horrible person, that maybe he could help her or something cheesy like that, it's sort of a shocker to discover that maybe she's not _completely _horrible. Though at the same time, she still dyed his hair in the first place, which makes him angry. He doesn't know how to deal with this onslaught of new information, or the fact that he's not as angry as he should be about the dyeing incident.

During filming, he feels slightly awkward. After all, it's the last scene they shoot before the big _kiss_, and though he has stage kissed a million girls before, this one seems different somehow. Perhaps because Jade is not the typical girl, but maybe because there's some kind of tension between them that he can't quite place and he doesn't want to know what will happen when that tension collides in their kiss. Maybe he's scared he'll actually _like_ kissing Jade.

The day of filming ends quickly, thankfully enough. Jade looks awkward during most of it, like she doesn't quite know how to act around him, and he imagines that he probably looks the same way. After all, they're not exactly the typical stage couple. They hate each other – or do they?

Despite it all, he finds himself thinking back to when he'd asked Jade to be his friend and she'd simply ran away, not even considering his valuable offer. After all, he really does think they could be friends if they tried. (Or maybe more. But he doesn't want to think about that, because it would be weird to think about _Jade _like that. Right?)

After filming ends, he decides to try to forget about her. He holes up in his trailer with Andre and a bunch of movies, much to Jamie's dismay – apparently, Jamie thinks that he and Jade should start hanging out in order to make their on-screen romance more 'believable', but if she actually believes that will happen, then she's got another thing coming.

(Though oddly enough, he would kind of like to hang out with Jade. Just to see what it's like.)

It's during the scariest part of one of the scary movies that Jade West walks in.

–

Jade West is actually feeling kind of guilty. This is definitely a new one – after all, she does bad stuff all the time and never feels bad about it. She has no idea why Beck Oliver is different, but for whatever reason, he is.

She feels kind of embarrassed when she realizes that Andre is at his trailer too, but she barges in anyway. "Beck," she says eloquently. "Um... this is for you."

"More coffee?" Beck raises an eyebrow at her.

"What else do you even like?" she demands in a huffy tone, throwing up her hands. "I mean, seriously. You're such a weirdo. All you like is coffee."

Beck laughs. He actually laughs. And of course, that just gets her more riled up. Placing her hands on her hips, she tells him in a serious tone, "I am _trying_ to _apologize._"

"I see," Beck tells her, a grin spreading over his face. Andre is just staring at the two of them, as if to ask what is even going on. Jade can't say that she knows herself, but she does wish that Beck would _say something_ of substance instead of staring at her with that dorky grin.

"Look, I know I'm a brat," Jade begins, setting down the cup of coffee, "but I don't know, I don't really _try _to be. And I put that in your shampoo a while ago – it was only just before I decided to apologize that I exchanged the bottles. I guess I could have told you, but I don't know. I thought you might look hot with green hair."

"You think I'm hot?" Beck repeats, obviously only hearing what he wants to hear, which makes her flush a little bit, much to her dismay. It seems he's breaking all of her stupid little rules tonight with his stupid face and stupid implications.

"I didn't say that," she says stubbornly, but the damage is already done. Beck is smirking and Andre is laughing into his hand, which just makes her feel even more embarrassed. After all, Beck _is_ good-looking, but she doesn't quite know if she'd call him hot, especially since that would make things awkward between the two of them – even more awkward than they already are.

"You implied it," Beck reminds her, the stupid smirk still on his face. "Anyway, where's that apology? I've been waiting for a nice apology, Jade West."

She stares at him, and of course, her stare quickly changes into a glare. The _last _thing she wants to do is apologize to him, but obviously if they're going to be doing a kissing scene tomorrow, the last thing they need is to be on bad terms. So at last, she takes a step forward and tries to soften her glare into something that looks kind of like a smile.

His hand is suddenly on the side of her face, burning heat into her skin and forcing her to look at him. She winces. It's not exactly something she'd expected, touching him, and the thing is that it's not entirely unpleasant either. She sort of likes the way his hand feels against her face, heat against ice. It's kind of like he's melting her.

Andre clears his throat, which makes her feel even more uncomfortable. Beck just laughs. "Apologize, Jade West."

She glares at him, trying to make herself more threatening than she feels. Then, at last, in a clipped tone, she says, "I'm terribly sorry for dying your hair green, Beck Oliver."

"Good." He releases her face, much to her dismay (and she hates the fact that she wants him to touch her, ugh).

"Look," Jade says sharply, crossing her arms back across her chest. "We've got a kissing scene to do tomorrow, in case you've forgotten. I doubt it, though, because no one could forget that they're going to kiss me." She smirks and flips her hair over her shoulder. Then she continues, "It's going to be awkward, but it might be considerably less awkward if we were –" She chokes a little bit. "_Friends."_

"Aww," Beck coos. "Is Jade West asking if she can be my friend?"

If glares could kill, Jade thinks, Beck Oliver would be a dead man from the heat of the glares she's sending his way. She takes a threatening step toward him, and he laughs.

"Sure, we can be friends," he says in a teasing voice, grinning at her and grabbing her hand. "You should stay here and watch movies with Andre and I tonight."

"Andre and me," she corrects.

"What?" Beck's brow creases, and she takes pleasure in knowing something he doesn't.

"Watch movies with Andre and me," she repeats, looking smug. "You wouldn't say 'watch movies with I', would you? So you say watch movies with Andre and me."

"Oh." He gives her a look that clearly asks if she's crazy. "Are you gonna stay or not?"

"Sure, why not?" She settles down beside Andre, who gives her an approving grin.

While Beck gets up to hunt around for the remote, which he has lost for what Andre describes as the 'fifteen millionth time', Andre whispers to her, "Hey, if you want a way to get on his nerves, his name is Beckett. You know, like his whole name. Full name. Whatever."

"Beckett, huh?" she repeats, a smug grin making its way onto her face. "Interesting. Very interesting."

For the rest of the night, she calls him Beckett, and she just smiles innocently when he glares at her. But they don't fight, not really, and by the time Jade is ready to call it a night, she counts it as an accomplishment. Really, the boy's not as bad as she thought.

Or maybe he is, but she's just becoming more tolerant.

Either way, maybe kissing him won't be so bad.

–

He wakes up in the morning, memories of the previous night flooding his head, and then he realizes that he has to kiss Jade today. He has to act like he's completely in love with her. And all right, he's an actor, so this sort of stuff should come naturally to him. Again, though, this is different. For whatever reason, she is different. It's going to be a lot harder than he had originally thought.

"Someone's excited," Andre observes as he grabs his jacket off of Beck's table.

"Are you ever going to stop forgetting that jacket?" Beck asks scornfully.

Andre just grins and shakes his head. "Seriously, though, you and Jade would be cute together."

"Andre!" Beck scolds. "Don't say stuff like that!" But it's too late, Andre's already gone with a small laugh, as if to show how much he is enjoying all of this.

He can feel himself sweating as he walks outside. _Just a stage kiss_, he repeats mentally, _doesn't matter. _But there's something unique this time – the girl he's kissing is not a blonde bimbo, a girl who giggles at everything and is completely open to new things. The girl he's kissing is Jade West, the girl who is made of fire and ice and rage, the girl who thinks she rules the universe. The beautiful girl who has somehow managed to tear his life apart.

Yeah, he would wager to say it matters.

Reminding himself to breathe, he steps outside of his trailer and prepares himself, because after all, he's _Beck Oliver_. Beck Oliver is brave and emotionless and finds things like this so freaking easy.

He breathes slowly and then walks over to the set. Leaning against the wall, he asks Jade, "Ready to film?"

She smirks. "You know it."

Then she walks away, being sure to flip her long, streaked hair back over her pale shoulder, and he wonders once again what he's gotten himself into.

–

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait, guys, my muse just got back! I know this chapter was a bit crappy, but it'll get better. We're just starting to see the attraction, after all ;)**

**Please leave a review; reviews mean faster chapters! And thank you all for reviewing, really. :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Ambiance**

AU

_Chapter Five_

Before they call places, Jade West walks up to Beck, a sneaky smirk on her porcelain face. "Can't wait for our kiss. Oh, I meant _stage_ kiss." She taps him on the nose in a way that would be friendly had it been anyone else, but since it's _Jade, _nothing she does is ever really friendly. He just stares after her with wide eyes, fear making its way into his heart. For about the millionth time since agreeing to do the movie, he wonders why in the world he agreed to do this.

Over the past couple of minutes, he has realized that being friends with Jade only entails a few benefits, like that she'll _attempt _to be nicer to her friends (of course, she makes no promises). And it surely doesn't exempt him from the odd games she likes to play.

The director starts talking then. "And here we are at the infamous kiss scene. Beck, Jade, you'd best be ready, because I can assure you that this won't be done in just one take."

As always, Jade looks freakishly confident as she says, "Sure thing." She smirks over at Beck, and he feels his heartbeat speed up. Probably just the intensity of his hatred for her – yeah, it doesn't sound good to him either, but it's better than saying that he _might be _attracted to Jade West.

"Beck?" the director asks pointedly, staring at him.

He shakes his head, as if to clear it, and then gives a small, poignant nod. "Yeah. Sure. I'm ready."

"All right," the director replies dubiously. "In this scene, Kyra is sitting out under a tree, sulking over the fact that she saw Zander with another girl. Then she goes off on him, explaining that she hates him and that they could never be together, when Zander cuts her off mid-sentence with a kiss. Got that?" When both of them nod, he finishes with, "Beck, I'm assuming you know when to cut Jade off?"

Beck nods, biting his lip. There's something about the annoying smile on her face that worries him, although he doesn't show it. Instead, he just backs up as the director yells things at the cameras, makeup artists, and staff. He's redirected to a space quite a few steps away from Jade. As he waits for the cue, he reminds himself, _All right, Beck, you're Zander Daniels, not Beck Oliver. You've got to get this right, unless you want to kiss Jade West over and over. And judging by her lovely personality, she can't exactly be a wonderful kisser_. Of course, he feels slightly guilty for thinking these things, but it's either this or zone out while thinking about how nice she looks when she's playing Kyra.

"Action!" the director calls, shocking Beck out of his reverie. He shakes his head – _get it together, Oliver – _and walks up to the tree that Jade is slouched against.

"Kyra." His voice is flat, just as he imagines Zander's would be.

Jade jumps to her feet, giving him a suspicious glare. "What are _you _doing here, Time Boy?" Jade questions, crossing her arms across her chest. "I _told _you I didn't want to talk to you."

"And I told you that I think we would make a good team, Kyra," he replies patiently. "Honestly. You kind of... balance me out, if you know what I mean?"

"I don't think I do," Jade retorts venomously, taking another step closer to him. "You _like _me, Zander. Don't even deny it. I can see it written all over your face." Her biting tone makes him realize that he is kind of staring at her oddly, so he blinks and tries to look more composed. "I _hate _you, Zander. You're just a Time Boy, consumed by power, and even if you don't realize it yet, I'm just a simple human, so irrelevant. Sure, I act like the universe revolves around me, but it doesn't actually, and if you even think of turning back time to turn things in your favor – _mmph!_"

Something in the back of his mind is telling him that it's not his cue, that he's supposed to cut her off at 'we can never be together', but somehow he ends up stepping forward and pressing his lips against hers anyway.

And boy, was he wrong. Jade West is an _amazing_ kisser.

–

It doesn't hit her until five seconds into the kiss that she is actually _kissing Beck Oliver_. And, more importantly, that she is _liking _it. For whatever reason, she isn't pulling away, even though he'd kissed her at the wrong time. Maybe it's the fact that his hands feel good against her skin – on her face at first, but slowly moving downward. Or maybe it's the fact that the kid's not a half-bad kisser, and – wait, what is she even _thinking_? Quickly, she pulls away, her mouth open in disgust – or maybe it's something like disbelief. She doesn't even really know.

"CUT!" the director screeches. "That was fantastic!"

"Are you insane?" Jade splutters, giving the director and applauding staff a rough glare. "He kissed me at the wrong time! How was that _fantastic_? The boy doesn't even know his cues!"

"Yes, but it only worked to your advantage," the director informs her curtly, raising an eyebrow. "It gave you the element of surprise, and it was pretty passionate, if I do say so myself."

Jade feels herself flushing despite herself. With a glare, she scowls over at Beck Oliver, who still looks like he's in some sort of trance. With an exaggerated sigh, she turns back to the director. "Let's run it again. Except can _someone_ throw some water on this idiot?"

"I'm not an idiot," Beck gripes at last, the annoyingly smitten look wiped off his face, probably because he's been reminded of how much of a jerk she actually is. It's for the best, she tells herself.

"Good to have you back, Beck," Jade says curtly, glancing at the ground. "Now can we run it again?"

"Sure," the director relents, a confident smile upon his face. Probably he thinks that he's going to prove her wrong, but Jade West is never wrong. Surely he should know that by now.

She runs her lines again with perfect precision, careful not to miss a single word, while trying to convey emotion to the best of her ability. This time, Beck manages to wait until she gets to 'we can _never_ be together' to kiss her. And even though he's still a great kisser, something is off. In the sanctity of her mind, Jade West admits that the director was right. This kiss is definitely not as passionate, not as spontaneous, not as _first-kiss-like _as the other one. Whatever method acting exercise thing Beck Oliver is doing is actually paying off.

She pulls away and stares at the ground as the director yells, "CUT!"

"Yeah, so you were right," Jade tells them, glancing up from the ground to stare defiantly at the crew and the director. "First one was better."

"Glad you agree, Ms. West," the director says curtly. "That's why I didn't even bother taping the second one. CREW! Let's break for lunch, and then we'll meet back here to film the kiss aftermath."

Everyone begins filing off, but Jade and Beck are left standing there, staring at each other. Jade speaks first. "I'm going to my trailer. Don't think this changes anything, Oliver. We're barely friends. No need to mess any of that up."

"I didn't – " Beck begins.

She decides she doesn't want to hear it, so she cuts him off. "I don't _care_. Bye." Then she marches off to her trailer, where she can hole up and pretend that none of that had happened and that she _hadn't_ liked kissing stupid Beck Oliver.

Maybe in there she can forget that she is actually starting to _like_ the stupid boy actor, because Jade West doesn't like anything, much less a boy who thinks that he's better at acting than she is and that he can kiss her any time he wants, both of which are false.

(Though, in the back of her mind, she'd kind of like the second one to be true. She just won't admit that to _anyone_.)

–

"How'd the kiss scene go?" is Andre's warm greeting. Beck just sighs and leans back in his chair, wishing that his friend hadn't brought it up. After all, he'd just been trying to forget about the whole kiss fiasco and the fact that Jade had seemed _angry_ after the kiss. He has kissed enough girls to know that's not really a good sign.

"Awful," is Beck's eloquent response.

"Man, are you really that bad a kisser?" Andre jokes, elbowing his friend in the ribs. "Seriously, dude, what with all the girls you've dated, I thought that you would have developed some skill."

"Those days are over." Beck sighs. "Seriously, Andre, I screwed up."

"Do you like Jade or something?" Andre inquires, raising an eyebrow. "You seem really messed up over this, like you're actually genuinely concerned about her. And lemme tell you, dude, I've never seen you actually _genuinely concerned _about someone. I almost thought you were a robot at one point, y'know."

"Thanks," Beck groans, leaning forward to thread his fingers into his hair. "I kissed her at the wrong time and she got all angry and demanded a redo, which apparently wasn't as good, and then she stormed off all mad-like, okay? But she didn't pull away, you know, during the first kiss. She kissed me back for a long time. And I liked it."

"I knew that girl would be a good kisser," Andre says suddenly, snapping his fingers. When Beck gives him an odd look, Andre quickly follows up with, "Well, that sounds like a tough situation. I mean, it's _Jade_, so you can't just like give her flowers or something. She'd probably cut them up."

"Or shove them down my pants," Beck amends with a chuckle.

"Yeah. That might hurt." Andre looks like he's deep in consideration. "Maybe you should just tell her, man. Jade likes when people are honest with her."

"And you know this because?" Beck questions, raising an eyebrow.

"I talk to her. You know, actually _try_ to talk to her, unlike some people." Andre laughs. "Just tell her, okay? I don't care if you write it in a note or whatever. Just _tell _her so you won't have to keep this inside of you and go all wonky."

"I'm not wonky," Beck protests with a sigh. "I'm just confused."

"Nah, you ain't goin' all angsty teenage boy on me." Andre grins and gets to his feet. "I'm going to help out with getting props ready and chiz, so you can sift through your oh so important feelings by yourself. Good luck with that!"

"What _is_ chiz?" Beck wonders aloud.

"I think it's a German sausage!" Andre calls back as he walks off.

Beck sighs and puts his head into his hands again, running a hand through his hair like he always does when he's confused. And boy, is he ever confused. Telling Jade flat-out seems too risky – he has a feeling she'll laugh in his face, like always, and tell them that he'd like _any _kiss because he's just a typical teenage boy, and he won't have the courage to tell her that he's never liked a 'stage' kiss before. So he thinks that maybe the best option is just writing her a note.

The director yells for them to come back onto the set, so he decides that he'll write her a note after they film the next few scenes – which, coincidentally, involve a good amount of kissing. It is a teen romance, after all, and he plans on making it noteworthy.

No pun intended.

–

Jade still doesn't have her thoughts together by the time they say that break is done, which she doesn't particularly like. If there's one thing that defines her, it's _confident_, and to be insecure like this – because of a _boy_, no less – just makes her feel absolutely torn apart inside. She yells back that she needs a few more minutes, but the assistants insist that she has to come now. Quickly, she glances over her appearance in the mirror to ensure that she still _looks_ together, even if she's coming apart on the inside. Then she steps out. "What do you _want_?" 

"You'd best get to the set," one of the assistants says snidely. "That is, unless you want them to start filming without you."

Before, she might've snapped at the assistant and informed them in no uncertain terms that she is the real star here and that the show could most assuredly not go on without her. Now, she just glares at the assistant and stomps off. Behind her, she can hear Danny muttering something about how she's really improving.

She pretends like she doesn't hear it.

Once she gets back to the set, she doesn't look at anyone, but silently sips into the position she was in when they stopped filming. Beck gives her an uncertain smile once she finally looks up at him, and she sighs audibly.

As soon as the director yells for them to start, she launches in with her 'questions' – loaded questions, she realizes, but she hopes no one else will pick up on it. "_Why'd _you kiss me?" she demands, feeling like it's as much of a Jade question as a Kyra-question.

"You were right," Beck mumbles, barely meeting her eyes.

"What?" she hisses, taking a step closer. She doesn't really like the proximity to Beck, but she's fairly sure that it's necessary. "I can't hear you, Time Boy; you're going to have to speak up."

"Like it needs saying," Beck says in a noticeably louder voice. "You were _right, _Kyra. All right? You were _right_. I like you. But since you're obviously not okay with that..." He snaps his fingers, a defiant look on his face. Jade steps backward, trying to portray the confusion that Kyra would be feeling.

"WHAT did you just do?" she bellows, giving him a hard glare that she wishes would burn right through him.

"I turned back time, Kyra," Beck says patiently, in one of those stupid patronizing tones he has used on her before. "Now you've never kissed me. Easy as that."

"What if I liked the kiss?" Jade retorts quietly, glancing down at the ground. She can't help but think about how well this correlates to their current situation.

"_What_?" Beck asks, as if he can hardly believe it himself.

"I wanted to kiss you, you _idiot_," she informs him, and then she's taking steps – _one, two – _until her lips are pressed against his and she's back in his arms. It's odd how comfortable it is kissing him, even though it's just their third kiss and it's supposed to be a stage kiss. From prior experience, she knows that stage kisses are supposed to be awkward. This, unfortunately, is not awkward.

It is, however, unfortunate that she should be feeling this way, because stage romances are the worst type. People assume that they're brought on only by the movie, gossip spreads like wildfire, and well, most stage romances don't survive the first few months. Jade has no way of knowing if her relationship with Beck would work like that, but she doesn't really want to risk it.

Once she pulls away from Beck at last, the director yells "CUT!". He then proceeds to make them go through the scenes about a million more times, and by the time they finish, Jade is so exhausted that she leaves Beck with a curt 'goodbye; I'm exhausted'.

She can't sleep once she gets back to the hotel, though. For what seems like ages, she just lies on the bed, her head filled with images. She replays the kiss over and over until her head feels like it's going to explode, then she reminds herself that she's _Jade West_ and if she wants to get over that idiot Beck Oliver, then she _will_, because she can do pretty much anything. And since when does she care what people think, anyway? She's strong, independent, and talented, and _that's_ more than most actresses in the business can claim.

At least, that's what she tells herself until 1 AM, when a note appears under her door, all neatly folded and stuff.. Slowly, she picks it up and reads it.

_I liked the kiss._

Well, this complicates things, she thinks. That absolute idiot. Then she slips it into her drawer and tells herself that it's just for safekeeping.

–

Jade confronts him the next day before filming. He notices that she has an odd look in her eyes – despite the fact that she's back to the normal, too confident Jade, there's this weird uncertainty in her eyes that he's not really used to seeing. She tells him bluntly, "I'm not another of your girltoys."

"I'm not like that anymore," Beck protests, but he can barely speak. His words come out all jumbled. (This, he notes, is most assuredly _not_ a good sign.)

"Yeah, I've seen the whole aftermath and trust me, it's not pretty," she deadpans, moving closer so that he's pinned up against the wall. "I realize that I'm hot and a good kisser, but that doesn't mean that you can pretend to like me, date me, get more famous, and then dump me."

"I'm not _like that_," Beck informs her, his eyes blazing. "I wouldn't even... it's not like that, Jade."

"Do you even like me?" she demands. This seems like it would be the question that's been on her mind ever since she got that cursed note. "I mean, romantically like me. I thought you _hated_ me!"

"I did." Beck stares at the ground. "But I don't know. I've been seeing you in a new light lately, and I guess that kiss... well, it made me think, and I think that maybe I do. Like you, that is."

"Do you want to _date_ me?" she inquires, her eyes blazing. 

"Maybe." He shrugs. "If you wanted to date me."

"Showmances don't last, Oliver," she reminds him.

"Sometimes they do," he allots. "I guess it just depends on the people." He doesn't know why he's even doing this. Why would he want to date Jade _West_? But every time he looks at her, he loses his breath and his heart speeds up to an unheard of speed, and he's reminded of why.

"Look." She looks uncomfortable again, not the confident Jade he's so accustomed to. "Let's wait it out until the end of the show, okay? If you're still convinced you like kissing me and well, you 'like me' and you aren't 'like that anymore', then maybe we'll give it a try."

"Kay." He gives a small nod. It's a good idea, actually; he's actually starting to grow fond of the bratty girl and he wouldn't want to lose her, really. "We can still be friends?"

"Yeah, sure, we can still be our 'weird version of friends'." Jade rolls her eyes. Then, as if on impulse, she leans over and plants a kiss on his lips. Not a long one, much to his displeasure, but a short, sweet kiss, something that seems so un-Jade. He stares at her in shock and she snickers. "Just... to hold you over until we get to kiss again during filming."

He laughs too. As she turns to walk away, he grabs her shoulder. "Jade," he asks awkwardly, "um, after filming today, do you wanna watch a movie in my room? As friends, of course."

She seems to be considering it. After a moment, she just shrugs. "Sure, why not?"

–

**A/N: That was probably a really bad chapter but it's 2 AM so um, I'm sorry. It was very eventful, though, and we're seeing the first real romance between them? XD Don't worry; it won't end once the movie ends – half the fun is seeing how Bade deals with the paparazzi, right? ;)**

**Review if you want an update soon :D Thanks so much for all your reviews. Seriously. They mean the world to me and I love you all to pieces.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Ambiance**

AU

_Chapter Six_

Filming the next day is even more awkward than she would have thought. They have to kiss about a million times (only two, actually, but it feels like more), and they make them do the kisses over and over again. At first, Jade tries to restrain herself, but she realizes soon that her efforts are futile and, well, Beck's not holding back, either.

"Tori Vega was right," the producer crows, his eyes bright. "You two have undeniable passion."

"Kill me," Jade mutters, rolling her eyes, but for whatever reason she can't hide the half-smile that makes its way onto her face.

Since things are still awkward between her and Beck, she forces Andre to eat with them as a buffer, and it feels just like old times. Andre makes all the right jokes, though, and before too long she's laughing with both of them and almost all of the awkwardness has vanished.

"You know," Andre says, a grin on his face, "I think this movie's going to be a hit."

"Of course it is," Beck retorts, flipping his hair. "I'm in it." And for a second, Jade is reminded of everything bad about him, of all the rumors she'd heard, of the hearts he'd broken, of how very _conceited_ he had been, but then he grins at her and adds, "And Jade too, of course," and she nearly forgets all of the bad things. His smile is nearly enough to melt her into a puddle on the floor – and icy Jade West never melts for _anyone_.

"Yeah, yeah, let's not get all sappy yet. The movie's still not over," Jade informs them, stabbing at her salad. "Though after this, I think I could go for a good vacation before all the promo stuff begins."

"We start not long after filming finishes," Beck points out, leaning back. "So you're not gonna get much of a nap, lazy girl."

She glares at Beck, but Beck just laughs easily and grins over at Andre. "We're going to be rich and famous, dude."

"_You're _already rich enough," Andre points out, a slight smirk on his face. "If you get any more money, I think you might just explode of cash or something. Can that happen? You could change your name, too. Beck Moneybags Oliver."

Beck laughs at that, of course, and the corners of Jade's mouth turn up in amusement. As Beck comes up with some sort of retort, Jade realizes that she is, oddly enough, going to miss this, going to miss Andre and eating lunches with the cast and even Beck Oliver. She's going to miss her weird relationship with the boy. And she knows that although it's only a month and a half between the end of shooting and the beginning of promotion, but it'll feel like a long time anyway.

And then, after wondering all of this, she starts to wonder when she turned into such a sap. She normally is glad to be done with movies, to get a bit of rest and relaxation (and time away from _people_), but oddly enough, she kind of enjoys the company of these people. Not that she'd ever admit it.

After lunch, Beck walks up to her and stands far too close, his mouth just above her ear, and whispers, "We still on for that movie night?"

She elbows him in the stomach, causing him to wince, and then she smirks. "Course we are."

"Good," Beck whispers, his lips lightly brushing her ear before he smirks and walks off. She watches him, raising an eyebrow and shaking her head. Beck Oliver is a mystery that she can't figure out.

/

At the appointed time, she bangs on the door, figuring that if he doesn't open it, she can probably find a way to knock it down anyway. After a few seconds, though, Beck pulls open the door, giving her a small smile. "Enter," he says, motioning into his room.

"Yeah, would've done that anyway," she snarls, but the corners of her mouth curve up. "Not bad, Oliver. You're living the good life here."

Beck laughs at that. "Guess you could say that. I've got a decent amount of money. Anyway, what do you suggest we watch? Maybe 'Ivory Palace'?"

"I will smother you with a pillow," she threatens, remembering the movie – her first, actually. She had only been ten, and at that point she had scraggly brown curls that trailed down her back and big eyes. It wasn't exactly attractive, nor was it something that she wanted to watch with Beck, an admittedly cute guy who enjoys teasing her about things. "We could watch 'Last Dance'."

"Touche," Beck retorts, obviously not wanting to watch his first movie ever, a movie about a little boy who wanted to ask out a dying little girl. She fondly remembers watching it with her mom and brother, back in the days when her family wasn't seriously screwed up, and saying that the little boy in it was 'kinda cute' – despite her strong belief that boys had cooties. "How about we watch something that actually doesn't have either of us in it?"

"Good idea," she replies, walking over to his vast collection of DVDs. "Dude, you have like twenty million of these."

"Yeah, I like movies," Beck says with a shrug, putting his hand on her shoulder (which makes her shiver for whatever reason). "So I buy a lot of them. What are you into?"

"I like horror films," Jade informs him, reaching in and grabbing one of her all-time favorites, a horror film called _The Scissoring_. "This one's really good."

"Somehow I guessed that," Beck tells her with a chuckle, grabbing the box. "Haven't actually watched this one before, but I hear it's terrifying or something like that. You sure that you're up for this?"

"I live for this stuff," Jade snarls, jerking the DVD from him and smirking slightly. She really does enjoy it, though, especially _The Scissoring _because of her obsession with scissors – not that Beck Oliver would know anything about that. "One day soon I should get a leading role in a horror movie instead of some cheesy romance film."

"But then you wouldn't get to work with me," Beck says, his voice half-teasing, half-serious, and she glances over at him. There's something innocent about his expression, something that makes her purse her lips and then frown. This boy couldn't possibly the heartbreaker that rumors are constantly circulating about. He just looks so young, so pure, so innocent, and all of a sudden she feels like a bad person. Quickly, she pushes those feelings away.

"Yeah, yeah," she mutters, then glances up at him. "We've only got a few more days to work together, anyway. Just like, four."

"Yeah." Beck glances up at her. "It's gonna be weird."

"You're gonna miss me, in other words," she teases, a small smile tucked into her pale features. "You're gonna miss working with the infamously bratty Jade West."

"And you're gonna miss working with the infamous player Beck Oliver," Beck retorts right back, smirking because he knows it's true.

She has to laugh. "I won't miss your over the top confidence," she growls, punching him lightly in the arm.

He pretends to look wounded. "Come on, then, let's watch the movie, Miss West," is his brisk reply, and he slips the DVD into the DVD player. With a small smile, he glances over at her. "Will you hold my hand if I get scared?" 

"As if," she scoffs, but secretly, she doesn't think that she would mind all that much.

/

He'd known before that Jade West was a freak. Heck, everyone went around talking about the weird things that the diva did. But honestly, this movie (her favorite movie, she'd said) takes freaky to a whole new level, and honestly, he thinks it's intriguing more than freaky. It just proves that she's having some sort of an influence on him.

The bright smile on her face as she watches almost makes this incredibly disturbing movie worth it.

"So, this is what you're into?" he chokes out, barely managing a smile, because seriously, this is some _creepy _chiz.

"Please don't tell me you're scared." She laughs, glancing over at him. "Please, Oliver, this is nothing. Some of the other movies I watch… I mean, I guess you won't be co-starring in a horror movie with me any time soon."

"You want me to?" He nudges her and sits back up, his arm pressing up against hers.

"I'm just saying that you're not actually a horrible actor," she informs him. "Take that however you want." Despite everything, though, he can tell she's starting to get tired – it is, after all, getting sort of late, and he can tell by her incessant quoting that she's seen this movie about a billion times before. So when her head falls onto his shoulder, he doesn't move her. And when she starts to snore softly, he doesn't wake her. Instead, he pauses the movie quietly, then stifles a yawn and leans his head on top of hers, thinking that he'll take a quick nap.

(It kind of feels nice, not that he'd ever admit it.)

/

When he wakes up, though, someone is shaking him roughly. He tumbles over and hears a loud shriek like, right in his ear, and that is enough to wake him up. Jumping up, he finds that he's looking right into the piercing eyes of Jade West.

"I think you crushed my ribcage," she groans, glaring at him. "That's not exactly the best way to wake up, being bruised by your co-star. I could go tell the tabloids you abuse me now."

He glares at her, then spins to see that Andre is staring there, an amused look on his face. Throwing up his hands, he says, "Hey, look, lovebirds. You're due on set in thirty minutes. I was just doing you a favor."

"Lovebirds," Jade snarls, looking about ready to murder Andre, but thankfully he escapes out the door before Jade can do any damage.

Beck smiles over at her. "Your hair's looking nice today."

"Shut up, Beckett." Quickly, she walks over to the door. "I'm going to get ready. See you on set."

"Yeah, see you," he echoes, watching her walk out the door and feeling an unfamiliar pang in his chest. After all, he has a feeling that this 'liking her' thing isn't going to go away any time soon, especially since he thinks she's beautiful even with messy bedhead.

And really, he wants to know when he went from hating her guts to wanting to kiss her all the time, because he'd rather like a refund on that one.

/

By the time Jade gets to the set, she's almost managed to make herself look presentable. The hair and makeup people just make faces at her, though; probably her poor fixup job isn't up to their standards. Whatever. She bares her teeth in response, and they cower because she is nothing if not terrifying.

"Nice to see you've made it, Jade," the director says stiffly, raising an eyebrow at her before turning back to Beck. "We're closing up this film, so we'll be starting on the last few scenes today. I trust you all have had an appropriate amount of rest."

"Yes," Jade says in a snarky tone. Behind her, someone squeezes her shoulder, and she turns to see Danny giving her a sympathetic smile.

"Remember, after this we have promotion and everything," Danny reminds her. "It's not over."

"I'm not upset about that," she splutters. "I'm not upset about anything, actually; this is just how I am!"

At that point, though, everyone is laughing at her, which she _hates_, so she storms off to hair and makeup so that she can look a bit more attractive before they start filming. She fumes for a bit before deciding _whatever_. (After all, she is a bit sad that the movie is finishing. It'll be weird, not seeing these people every day.)

/

Filming today is thankfully less awkward. Beck and Jade end up laughing between takes, and they act like good friends instead of awkward frenemies that secretly like each other. Beck ends up messing up a lot, forgetting his lines or accidentally (purposely) saying the wrong things, and in retaliation Jade glares at him, but he can tell by the slight smile on her face that she thinks it's fairly funny. (She messes up too, trips over a cord or something, but she stays in character and Director Lane thinks it's so funny that he decides not to redo it. She smiles, looking fairly proud of herself.)

Beck can hear the agents muttering on the sidelines between takes. "It's amazing how far they've come," Jamie murmurs.

"It really is," Danny replies with a laugh. "They hated each other for ages, and now they're acting like they're best friends."

Jamie lowers her voice (but not low enough that Beck can't understand her). "I hear she's still intent on pranking him. Beck better hide his shampoo."

Danny hoots at this, and Beck rolls his eyes, but he runs his hand through his hair anyway. Just to check. (It feels the same as always, so he figures that Jade hasn't gotten to his shampoo yet.)

Then, surprise of all surprises, Tori Vega, the one who originally got them the parts, shows up. Of course, she has the most awkward timing ever – Jade had fallen onto the ground, tripped on something during a take, and Beck had helped her to her feet, so it kind of looked like they were holding hands. Tori walks over, a huge smile on her face, and says brightly, "Hey! Jade and Beck. Nice to see you guys getting along so well!"

Beck raises an eyebrow – he certainly hadn't expected Tori to show up today, and by the look of murderous surprise on Jade's face, he reckons Jade hadn't known ahead of time either. He gives Tori a small smile to make up for Jade's glare and replies, "Oh, hi, Tori. Didn't know you were coming…?" 

"It's one of the last days of filming," Tori responds, smiling. "Trina and I came to see the last few days and see how it was all going."

"Yeah, right," Jade snarls, putting a hand on her hip. "You just wanted to see 'hottie Beck Oliver' and 'horrible Jade West' fighting, because you're _evil_." This kind of startles Beck – over the last few days, he's kind of forgotten what horrible Jade West was like. All he remembers now is _Jade_, his Jade, and it kinda startles him that he's begun thinking of her as his Jade, but it mostly makes him smile.

"I – I what?" Tori stares at Jade, looking confused. "I told Trina to cast you guys as the leads because I thought you'd get along well, and well, I'd heard of your infamous rivalry and I thought you guys would portray them in the beginning really well. It's nice to see that you guys were able to work past that!"

"Stop playing all innocent," Jade hisses, and then she spins around and storms back to Jamie and Danny, probably to complain about Tori. Beck has to laugh.

"You look happy," Tori says with a teasing smile. He's worked with her before on past movies, so they're sort of friends, and he really does need someone to talk to besides Andre, who would never let him live it down. So he ends up blurting out, "I like Jade. Like, a lot, like more than I should. And I can't _stop_ liking her. But she – she thinks it's just some showmance, that it won't last."

"Just give it time," Tori replies, patting him on the shoulder. "She'll come around. Every romance between actors is like that. It just takes a lot more time and patience, and hey, at least you can be sure she likes you for you." 

"Yeah." Beck barks out a laugh. "Don't think Jade's exactly the type to date me for money or fame." The mere notion brings a smile to his face. 

"Congrats, anyway," Tori says with a grin. "Jade doesn't normally take well to people, from what I've seen. And she seems to legitimately enjoy your company. That's definitely rare."

"Yeah, well…" He smiles. "I enjoy her too." It sounds wrong, he realizes after saying it, and then he dissolves into laughter. "I… you know what I mean."

"Yeah." Tori smirks. "Well, anyway, from what I've seen, you guys are doing amazing in this movie. Pretty sure it'll be one of the next big blockbusters. I know I'll go see it. And now Trina wants to talk to you, I think."

"Great," Beck says, unable to hide his sarcasm. He and Tori are friends, but he and Trina… well, Trina's always had a not-so-secret crush on him, one that he most certainly does not reciprocate. "See you later, then."

"Maybe I can go convince Jade that I'm not evil," Tori informs him with a giggle.

/

There's something about Tori that makes Jade hate her. Maybe it's the way that she always seems to score leading roles without even trying, maybe it's the ever-present smile on her face, or maybe it's the fact that she could get any guy she wanted, but any way, Jade doesn't like Tori _at all_. So when Tori comes over to talk to her, Jade gives her a long glare. "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to say that you and Beck are doing a great job in the movie so far," Tori told her, grinning. "Oh, and that you guys make an adorable couple."

"Shut up," Jade retorts. "I know you planned this. You… you knew we hated each other."

"Well, you don't hate each other anymore," Tori says innocently. "Anyway, Trina had a part in it too." This just makes Jade groan more – if there's anyone she hates more than Tori Vega, it's Trina Vega.

"Just… leave me alone," Jade moans. Her eyes, though, are focused on Trina talking to Beck, and for some reason, the way Trina keeps looking at Beck makes Jade green with envy. Not that she'd ever admit it or anything.

/

The next few days seem to fly by for Jade. Tori and Trina try their best to stay away from her, probably because they're scared of her (and with good reason, really), but she can see the small smiles on their faces whenever she and Beck do a scene that is particularly good – and really, all of them are good, but whatever. Their secret pride pleases her in an odd sort of way. (And besides, one of their scenes is a fight scene, and Jade is still rather good at portraying hatred and anger. Even after everything.)

Off-set, she finds herself spending more and more time with Beck Oliver. It's not like there's much else to do, really, and the boy can be particularly amusing, especially when he's paranoid that she's going to _do _something to him – what, exactly, she has no clue, but his paranoia is amusing nonetheless. They have movie nights and eat popcorn and talk about particularly odd topics, and really she enjoys it more than she would like to let on. Andre teases her about him occasionally, but then she gives him one of her infamous death glares and socks him in the arm and most of the time, that makes him shut up. Thankfully.

She can't shake the feeling that Beck still _likes _her, though, even after everything, because she catches him staring at her more often than not. And it's not a passing stare, not even an _oh-look-she's-pretty _stare, but one of those intense stares that those 'super romantic' guys in the movies give to the girls they love. (And really, the word _love_ scares her more than anything. She doesn't know love, doesn't do love, so no way could Beck Oliver be in love with _her._)

The last day of filming comes far too soon. A sense of melancholy has settled over the set instead of the usual energy, and Jade doesn't like it much, but she can't bring herself to break it because she's sad too.

Beck pulls her into a hug. Normally she would push him away or say something about how annoying he is, really, but all she can do now is settle her head into his shoulder and wrap her arms around him, breathing in his scent. After all, this is the last chance she'll get for a month and a half.

Once Beck lets her go, Director Lane grabs them both and drags them over to hair and makeup. She has to look absolutely perfect for this last scene – a dance scene, she knows, a final makeup, a conclusion. The word conclusion actually makes her upset. She hadn't known she would feel this way. But she still feels an odd sort of pride. After all, she's been doing this movie for ages; it's only natural that she should feel pride upon completing it.

They finally release her from hair and makeup, and she strolls down to the set, some people following her to do touchups or whatever. Her eyes fall upon Beck, who looks pretty spiffy in a suit. Beck grins. "You look gorgeous."

"Shut up." She nudges him, laughing. "You don't look so bad yourself." She's starting to understand why exactly he's a heartthrob – he's pretty irresistible when he looks like this.

"I know," he replies confidently, giving her a spin, which makes her laugh more. "I'm supposed to be like your prince or something, remember?"

She kicks him lightly in the shin. "Let's just get this over with, Oliver."

He grins at her. "Maybe I don't want this to be over with."

/

The last scene is perfect, or at least he thinks so. There's something magical about the whole thing – something magical about the two of them dancing together, something magical about the way she's looking at him, and most assuredly something magical about the end kiss, because they keep kissing even after the director yells "Cut!". Everyone has to laugh at that, and then it turns into this big cast group hug. Some of the minor actors are crying, and the director looks like he's about to be in tears. Even Jade looks more melancholy than usual.

"It's a wrap!" Director Lane yells at last, which just brings another round of cheers and tears.

"The afterparty's at six," Director Lane announces as everyone starts to disperse. "Be there or be square!" A cheesy saying, Beck thinks, but kind of appropriate.

He manages to catch up with Jade and hook his arm around her neck. "I can't believe it's over."

"Yeah, me neither." Her voice is soft, softer than usual, and it makes him smile slightly. "It's been fun, though. A _lot_ more fun than I thought."

"I'd have to agree there," he tells her, rubbing her shoulder soothingly. "We're going to be a hit. Just you watch."

"Yeah, because of me," Jade says confidently. "Oh, and you too. Maybe."

He has to laugh at that. "Your confidence in me is so assuring, Jade." Then he stops and turns so that he's looking right into her eyes. "Look, do you remember what you told me? That maybe we could try… try _this_ after filming if I still liked you?"

"Yeah." She stares at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Well… I still like you. A _lot_," he remembers to add, then stares at her, wondering if he should kiss her. Thankfully, he doesn't have to make that decision, because she leans forward and kisses him first. He hooks his arms around her and she wraps her arms around her neck, and this is better than any stage kiss, really.

It's better than anything he could've imagined.

/

At the afterparty, he decides to take a chance and ask Jade to dance. She accepts with a small half smile, then lets him lead her to the floor. As they start to dance, she smiles slightly. "You're not a bad dancer."

"You're not half-bad yourself," he retorts, giving her a grin as he spins her around. "It's our second time dancing today. Guess this time it's as Beck and Jade."

That makes her frown a little. She stops dancing, her eyes dark. "Look, Beck," she whispers, letting her arms fall to her sides. "It's not me, it's you."

"Why does it sound like you're breaking up with me?" His voice is barely a whisper as well, because he might as well just admit it to himself – he likes her a lot, too much, really. In fact, he might be falling in love with her, and for her to break up with him before they're even really together would be too much.

"We're not dating, therefore I can't break up with you," is her crisp reply. Then she sigh, looking down. "Okay, I'll just admit it. I like you. But there are things that have to be considered, including your actions in the past, and I just… give it some time, okay, Beck? You probably just think you're into me because of this movie and all of the romance in it, not to mention I'm not exactly a bad kisser. But you'll probably leave here and find some other hot girl to get with, and I just… I'm _not_ that kind of girl." She glances up at him at last. "Give it time, a couple weeks, at least. See how you feel when you're _not _around me. Then maybe, if you're still into me and I still like you, maybe we can try this out."

"Jade, I…" he begins, but he stops as she begins to back up. As she turns and flees, he calls, "Okay" behind her.

He gets nothing in response. (Not that he really expected a response, anyway.)

/

He packs alone that night, throwing all of his clothes and shoes and memories into a suitcase and sealing it tight. The hardest thing to pack is all of his movies, because every time he sees her stupid face on a DVD cover he wants to die. Instead, he just throws it into the box and then tapes it up and seals it tight, halfway wishing he could do the same with his feelings for her.

(He doesn't pack _The Scissoring. _He just can't bring himself to do it.)

He falls asleep alone that night, images of her playing in his mind, and he wonders what it would (will) be like if (when) they're together.

(Already, he misses her.)

/

A knock on her door awakens her from her sleep. She glances in the mirror quickly, wiping away the tracks of stray eyeliner, then opens the door, probably looking like the poster girl for a horror movie. Inevitably, the person on the other side is Beck Oliver.

"I'm leaving now," Beck says, glancing down and running a hand through his hair. "I just thought it'd be proper to say goodbye." 

Every inch of her is dying to kiss him, but instead she pulls him into a casual, albeit awkward hug. "Bye, Beck. See you in a month and a half when we become superstars."

"See you," he echoes, and then he absently presses a kiss to the top of her head. It sends tingling throughout her body, and she kind of hates it.

As he walks off, dragging his suitcase behind him, she just wants to run after him and kiss him. Instead, she just watches him go and tells herself that it's better this way.

/

**A/N: OKAY SERIOUSLY DEPRESSING ENDING .whoops. Also hi it's been ages, hope you still remember this fic? LOL. This is a sucky chapter, sorry, I've forgotten how to write, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.**

**Please review for a quickish update and thanks, guys, for all of your amazing reviews! I love you all to pieces xD**


	7. Chapter 7

**Ambiance**

AU

_Chapter Seven_

In the few cliché movies Jade West has watched in her lifetime (not acted in them, of course, because that's _not_ Jade's type of thing), girls call up their girlfriends when they get dumped and then cry into their bowls of ice cream while watching chick flicks. (And admittedly Jade hasn't been dumped, but it sure feels like it.) But this is different, somehow; Beck is _different_, and so she stocks up on Ben and Jerry's and curls up in her bed, the TV blasting her favorite movie – _The Scissoring, _of course. After a while it starts to remind her of Beck, and if she's being truthful, she'd like to avoid him for as long as possible. So she turns her TV off and just sleeps and eats for what feels like days.

Danny is the first one to venture in to her hideaway. "Jade," he says. "I've been calling you for like two days; why haven't you picked up the phone?"

"Didn't feel like it," Jade mutters into her pillow.

"Like heck you didn't," Danny tells her sharply. "This movie is _everything_, Jade; you can't just give it up because you 'don't feel like it'."

"I'm not giving up the movie; I'm just not answering my phone," Jade says, her voice sounding more annoyed than she would like. She buries her head back in her pillow, trying to ignore what Danny is saying. The words blur together – _movie _and _promotion_ and _career_ and _Beck _– wait, what?

"What?" she mumbles, propping herself up on her elbows and staring at him.

"Had a feeling that would get your attention," Danny replies with a sigh. "Did something happen between you and Beck?"

"No," Jade retorts. Her cheeks go red, much to her disdain.

"Yeah, could you be more obvious?" Danny chuckles. "Two pieces of advice for you, Jade. First, don't let word of this get out. No need for paparazzi to get involved. Act normal, whatever. I know you're a very capable actress. And second…" He trails off, smiling. "Go call Beck if you miss him so much."

Sighing, she leans back. "Surely he doesn't miss me. He hasn't called or anything, and I mean, if he missed me, he'd probably _try _to get in touch with me, right?"

"Not like you've called him," Danny is quick to remind her. "Just call him, Jade." He sets the phone down in her lap and smiles. "I need you on your top game for the next little bit before promotion starts, and if that requires Beck Oliver being in your life, then so be it. I just need Jade _West _back."

Jade smiles back lamely, then glances down at the phone in her hands. Hesitantly, she glances over the keypad, then sets it down, deciding she'll call him later.

/

"Beck, seriously." The door opens and Andre slips in, followed closely by Jamie. He honestly can't blame them; he has been holed up in his room for quite a while, just staring at the ceiling and contemplating everything that had happened, that had _been happening_, over the past few weeks. Despite the fact that his heart feels like it's been like, shattered or something, he doesn't regret anything that happened. It still seems surreal, though – how could he fall in love with _Jade West_? And how could she not want to be with him? Half of the girls in the world would give anything just for a date with him! It sounds conceited, he knows, but he does have a right to be conceited, right? Andre's voice breaks his train of thought again. "I'm sure the ceiling isn't all that interesting."

"The ceiling is offended by that remark," Beck remarks wryly, turning over to glance at Andre and Jamie. "Why are you here?"

"Well, lemme see," Jamie says brightly. "You've only just been in bed for like, three days straight. I think we have a right to be here, don't you agree, Andre?"

"I'm gonna have to say yes," Andre agrees. "Seriously, dude? You're a heartbreaker, not some guy who gets in bed and cries his eyes out over a girl he's known all of a few weeks. And I mean, Jade's great, Jade's awesome, I know. I've met her too. But in the end, no girl is worth this much pain. You're Beck Oliver. Get your head back in the game. There's a lot of stuff you gotta get done."

"Yeah, I know," Beck replies gruffly. "I'll… I'm sorry. I'll do better. Swear it."

"Promise?" Jamie questions, putting her hands on her tiny hips in a failed attempt at looking intimidating – after all, she is like five foot one.

"Yeah, I – hang on!" His phone starts buzzing, and Beck grabs it, his hands shaking already. He swears he nearly sees a heart attack when he sees the words _Jade West_ glowing on the screen. "I – it's Jade," he stammers. "I'm sorry, but can you get out? I gotta take this."

Andre and Jamie both shake their heads, but they leave anyway, and Beck swears there's a hint of a smile on both of their faces even as they leave.

He hesitates for just a moment before flipping open his phone. There's so much he wants to say, and yet somehow he can't manage to say a word. For a moment, he just stares at the phone, and then suddenly she's speaking. "Beck?"

"Jade," he breathes out, and quickly he realizes that even hearing her voice is overwhelming.

"Oh," she says simply.

The two of them are silent for a moment, just listening to each other's breathing. Beck cracks first. "I miss you," he mumbles, pressing the phone close as if it'll somehow make her come closer.

"Miss you too," she replies simply. "A lot."

"Me too," he breathes out. "Can we just – can you just…" He trails off, unsure of what exactly he's trying to say. "I can't _wait_ a month and a half to see you, okay?"

"Where are you?" she inquires, cutting straight to the point as always, skipping all of the sappy stuff.

"At my house…" Beck trails off, feeling slightly confused. Where else would he be? At a party, blasting music and dancing with random girls that he doesn't care about in the least? As if.

"In LA?" she questions quickly, and he thinks he's beginning to understand.

"Yeah," he answers, a smile flitting across his face. "Are you in LA?"

"Yeah, but… I'm kinda out right now," came Jade's response. She sounded oddly hesitant for someone who had just professed to missing him a _lot_ just a few minutes ago. "I'm on my way to a signing."

_Ah_. That would explain it.

"Tell me where you'll be," he says, smiling slightly despite himself at the possibility of going to see Jade again. Of course, it's a risk, practically everything in their business is, but he's sure he can pass it off as a friend coming to see a friend, so long as he doesn't like, kiss her in front of half of the population of the world. He _is_ an actor, though, he does have some semblance of self-control. "I'm coming."

"I'm at the Golden Mall – you know where that is, right?" Jade questions.

"Of course," Beck responds immediately, cupping the phone in his hand. "Be there in like, ten minutes, all right? Don't go anywhere."

Jade snorts into the phone, something that oddly enough, Beck finds to be adorably unladylike. "As if. Hurry up before I murder the whole crowd. I'm sure that they'll all be annoying."

"Yeah, maybe you're annoying," Beck shoots back, smiling softly as he remembers her torturing him before they'd finally learned to get along – and, well, his lame attempts at revenge.

"Maybe you're ugly," she shoots back at once, but he can tell that she's merely teasing.

"Maybe you have a stupid face," he retorts, deciding that it's probably best to stick to childish insults.

"Careful, now," is Jade's response. "Keep insulting me and I might just have to slip a little hair dye into that precious shampoo of yours. I can just see you showing up at our first promo shoot with your hair a brilliant shade of pink."

"You'd just _love _that, wouldn't you?" he answers, slightly amused. "Well, I've got news for you, West. I still have that video of you confessing to vandalizing my room saved. So you dye my hair, and that little video gets out, baby."

"Wouldn't that be something?" Jade says, a hint of defeat coloring her tone. He has a feeling that she doesn't like to be defeated, and that feeling grows all the more as she hastily continues, "Look, as much as I'm 'enjoying our conversation', I gotta go. We just pulled up at the Mall. Get here quick."

"All right," he tells her. "I'll be there soon."

"You better," she informs him in a slightly icy tone before hanging up. Staring at his phone, he shakes his head and absently wonders how he'd ever become interested in this strange girl.

He slips open the door to his room, deciding it's probably best not to alert Andre or Jamie to the fact that he's going to meet up with Jade; however, he quickly realizes that isn't an option. Both of them are standing directly outside of his room, their arms crossed.

"And where exactly do you think you're going?" Andre questions, looking like he is trying very hard not to smile.

Beck sighs, grabbing his keys off the table and staring defiantly at the two of them. "I'm going to meet up with Jade, duh."

"On the other side of town?" Jamie asks with a giggle.

"Well, yeah, that's where she is," Beck tells her, scratching the back of his head. Now that he thinks about it, it does seem a bit curious, but he has been missing her more than he thought imaginable, and the only thing really to do is to drive to the other side of town to see her. "I've gotta go; Jade's waiting on me, and you know how she gets. She's like, the most impatient person in the world."

"Have fun," Andre says, winking in a suggestive way that makes Beck scurry quickly out the door.

As he leaves, he hears Jamie say, "Who would've thought?"

"I knew it," Andre answers proudly. "I mean, I figured it would happen eventually. Their personalities – they just work really well together. They just thought they hated each other because it was better than facing the truth."

Rolling his eyes, Beck heads out the door.

/

"I'm like, your biggest fan," the little girl in front of Jade squeals. Jade resists the urge to roll her eyes – she's only heard this fifty million times today from fifty million different people. Instead, she hastily scribbles a signature onto the girl's picture and offers her a small smile.

"Thanks for your support," Jade tells her, albeit a bit mechanically. "You're a great fan!" She raises her eyebrow as the little girl skips off, apparently not seeming to notice that anything was up. The next girl in line steps up, and Jade groans upon noticing that she's wearing a Beck Oliver t-shirt. Seriously?

"Oh em gee!" The girl squeals, jumping up and down. "You're so pretty in real life! Like, really! And also I can't _wait_ to see _Shattering Reflections_! I mean, you and Beck are legit so adorbs together. But if you weren't, I'd definitely snatch him up. That boy is _fine_."

She bites her lip and tries not to sigh, wishing the girl would shut up already. She's well aware of how 'fine' Beck Oliver is, thanks. However, she is aware of the consequences of saying such a thing to a fan, so she just smiles and says, "Thanks. We're excited for the new movie too! Hope you attend the premiere; it will be _loads_ of fun, and both Beck and I will be there."

"Heck yeah we will," comes a voice behind her. Startled, she turns around and finds herself looking up at Beck Oliver. The fangirl nearly has a mental breakdown right there and then, and Jade swears she's about to do the same. "Sorry guys, I think it's time Jade gets a break. She'll be back in a few, okay?"

The whole crowd nods in agreement – who can say no to Beck Oliver? – so he grabs her hand, helping her up to her feet. She hisses "idiot" in his ear as he pulls her off, but he just grins at her.

As soon as they find an empty corner outside the door to the mall, she attacks him, pulling him close and kissing him roughly. He makes a noise of amusement, but offers no real protest – not that she thought he would, anyway. Quickly, he pulls her close, wrapping his arms around her body like he never wants to let her go. It's nice, she decides, really nice.

Once she pulls away, she smiles. "You're unbelievable."

"Look who's talking," he chuckles, reaching forward to tuck one of her strands of hair behind her ear. "You know, I've missed you a lot."

"Yeah, I've missed you too, Mr. Bigshot Actor," she retorts, trying to make sense of her thoughts. "So what have you been doing? Lying around, bathing in your money?"

Lightly, he presses a kiss to her lips. "Well, you got the first part right," he tells her. "But unfortunately I haven't exactly figured out how to invent a tub full of money, so I'm stuck with my normal tub for now."

"Normal's boring," she informs him.

"Isn't that the truth?" He laughs, then pulls back a bit, standing a fair distance away from her and staring at her in a way that makes her more than slightly uncomfortable. It's not a perverted stare, she decides, more like she's the only thing in the world that matters, and that feeling – the feeling of having someone actually care about her – is unfathomable to her.

"So, um," she mutters, glancing down, "what exactly do you want to do about us?"

"Well, as of late I've decided that I don't want the press involved in my relationships," he tells her brightly, placing one of his hands on her shoulder. "So if you actually do want to be with me, let's keep it to ourselves, hm? Secretly dating or whatever. Though I should tell you that Jamie and Andre already sort of know."

"Course I want to be with you, idiot," she says, looking back up at him. "I wouldn't have told you to come if I didn't. And yeah, figures. Danny knows, or at least he thinks he does."

"Then we're good," Beck whispers, smiling down at her.

"Oh, we're _so _good," Jade affirms, leaning forward and kissing him again.

After a minute or two, Beck pulls away, much to Jade's dismay. He grins at her. "I know we need to, ahem, _catch up_, but you've got a signing to finish up. And it would be more than slightly suspicious if we took forever out here, eh?"

"You sound like a Canadian," Jade grumbles, frowning at her – at her _boyfriend_. The word is foreign even to her own ears, but she decides that she kind of likes it. Yes, she could get used to thinking of Beck Oliver as her boyfriend.

"I am a Canadian," Beck replies, arching an eyebrow at her. "Seriously, you didn't know that? Only every single magazine in the world publishes articles about my secret Canadian background. Except it's not really a secret, but whatever floats their boats."

This confounds Jade. She stands there for a moment, pondering this, before saying, "Ew, I hate Canada. And also I hate teen magazines, so I don't read them."

"Well, I would've thought that you might read them if you were on the cover," Beck teases, elbowing her lightly. "I mean, you're young and you're an amazing actress. No wonder you're on the cover of like, every girls' magazine in the world."

"I am not, shut up," Jade hisses, elbowing him back (though it's not quite as light). "You're just sucking up to me because you forgot to mention the fact that you're Canadian."

"I am not," he mutters, linking her elbow with his and walking forward, pulling them both into the mall. Everyone, of course, stops and stares at them, but he tips his hat like an actual gentleman and keeps walking, conversing with Jade like all of this is totally natural.

One girl runs up to them. "Oh my gosh! You're Beck Oliver and Jade West!"

"Yes, thank you," Jade mutters sarcastically. "I had no clue."

With a small chuckle, Beck smiles over at her, and then turns back to the girl. "Yeah, we are."

"I thought you _hated_ each other," the girl tells them, looking bewildered. Jade can't imagine why – is this the chiz that the teen magazines are spreading about her lately? Honestly.

"No, not really," Beck answers the girl confidently. "Jade is – she's great, really. We're very close, and no, we don't hate each other at all."

"Yeah, and I tolerate him," Jade said with a laugh, glancing over at him. "Beck's not _so_ bad once you get to know him, really."

"Oh," the girl replies, her eyes wide. "Well, that's cool." Then she walks off quickly, looking starstruck. Jade tries not to laugh.

Beck grins over at her. "I wasn't too obvious, right?"

"Not at all," she mutters, then starts walking again, dragging him with her. Once they get back to the signing, everyone is still standing in line, staring at them – at how close they are together. Jade sneers at them, hoping they'll back off. She doesn't want to have to tell them ten million times that they aren't actually dating.

Beck leans over and whispers in her ear, "Meet me at my house once the signing is over. Here's the address." He slips a paper into her hands, and once again she's amazed at how impeccably he thinks things through. There's a hint of a smile on his face as he leaves, bidding the crowd adieu, and she transitions easily into greeting fans and answering the eons of questions they have about her relationship with Beck.

Suddenly the signing seems more durable.

/

Andre opens the door for her. She stands for a moment in shock, then raises her eyebrow. "Um, hi."

"Oh, I figured you'd be coming over," Andre says with a chuckle, moving to the side that she can come in and calling "Beck, dude, your girlfriend's here" up the stairs. He then turns to her. "So how have you been, Jade?"

She feels more than a little bit awkward, but she tells him, "Um, I've been fine," anyway and then follows it up with, "So are you and Beck roommates now or what?"

"Yep," Andre answers, popping the 'p'. At last, Beck enters the room, looking slightly disheveled but thrilled to see her anyway. Not seeming to care much about Andre, he grabs her and kisses her passionately, at least until Andre clears his throat. Blushing a bit, Jade jerks away from Beck and glares at Andre, who throws his hands up and exits the foyer.

Beck just smiles slyly at her. In response, she hisses, "So since when are you and Andre roommates or whatever?"

"Since he needed a place to stay and I'm apparently a rich guy," Beck replied, shrugging. "What, have you got an issue?"

"No, as long as you two aren't secretly having an affair," Jade responded teasingly. "Anyway, sorry to kill the mood or whatever, but I've got to go to the bathroom. Mind directing me there, Mr. Moneybags? Oh, and please don't tell me you have gold-plated toilet seats."

"Only in my dreams, darling," Beck told her, grabbing her hand. It was the first time she'd really held his hand, and although it's sort of an odd circumstance, it still sends tingles down her spine. He pulls her to a door and waves his hand like he's some sort of prince. "Here you go, princess. Just don't put anything in my shampoo, kay?" 

"Don't call me princess," she retorts, frowning and trying not to promise anything, because she doesn't want to be a liar. As soon as he leaves, she unscrews the lid to the shampoo that is quite obviously his (Sexy Hair, honestly) and dumps a bunch of pink hair dye in it. Then she flushes the toilet, in case he's like eavesdropping or something, which would admittedly be very close but she wouldn't put it past him. After washing her hands quickly, she exits the bathroom and makes her way back downstairs. Beck's on the couch, watching some random Nickelodeon show. She plops down beside him.

"How old are you again?" she teases, watching as Spongebob comes on the screen.

"Eighteen," he replies, his voice obviously trying (and failing) to sound all macho.

"I don't think it's possible to sound macho while watching Spongebob," Jade informs him. He rolls his eyes at her but slips his arm around her anyway, and she snuggles into it.

"Spongebob is a quality show," he tells her quietly, kissing the top of her head. "You have no taste whatsoever."

"I have more taste than you do, hipster," she mumbles, smirking up at him.

"Too far," he whispers, grabbing her and tickling her. Protesting loudly, she hits him lightly and squirms, trying to get away, but even still she can't contain her giggles. He seems to take that as a strange sort of motivation and continues.

Then all of a sudden Andre is standing in the doorway, raising his eyebrows. "Having fun, there?" he inquires, shooting them a quick wink before retreating to the kitchen.

Jade scowls. "I'm going to murder him one of these days, just you watch."

"That's considered illegal in some countries," Beck points out. "Oh, and slightly rude."

/

The next day, he invites her over again, but it seems that he'd had the bright idea of showering just before she got there, because by the time she gets there, he's fuming. "Jade!" he hisses, shaking out his head of pink hair. "What the _heck_ is this?"

"Looks good on you," she teases, tweaking one of his shockingly pink hairs. "Seriously, I think you could rock this look. Start a pink revolution."

Beck scowls at her, and then glances back in the mirror. "I look like a Teletubbie," he moans.

"There's no pink Teletubbie," Jade points out. "More like… a princess fairy. It's cute."

He directs his glare at her. "I really hate you sometimes," he says, growling. "I'm assuming that this doesn't wash out with cold water, huh? Seeing as you're gaining a _lot_ of amusement from this."

"It's temporary," she assumes him. "As in, after a few weeks it'll fade away kind of temporary."

This just makes his frown grow bigger. "I'm going to look like this when we start our promotion stuff?" he asks helplessly, staring at his pink reflection in the mirror.

"Like I said, you look great anyway," Jade tells him, grinning from ear to ear. "Hey, who knows. Maybe I'll put in pink hair extensions and we can match."

"I'll get back at you for this, I swear," he hisses, but instead of storming off to plot his revenge like he once would've, he leans over and kisses her roughly. She decides that she likes this 'revenge' a whole lot better.

/

Most of Beck's time before the promotion tour starts is spent with Jade. All of a sudden, they've become oddly inseparable. They watch movies together (though Jade enjoys commenting on every little thing, sort of like his own personal commentary) and at night she usually just ends up sleeping on his couch, because, as she tells him constantly, her apartment is big and lonely. Not like she's _scared_ or anything.

But sometimes he looks at her, his beautiful girlfriend, and wonders why he has to hide the fact that he's dating this gorgeous girl. It just doesn't seem fair, really.

The day before promotion starts, she reveals that her roommate's coming back from filming and she has to go pick her up from the airport. Her roommate, she tells him, is the Disney star Cat Valentine, who Beck has worked with occasionally and finds to be very nice, if a bit odd. He can't help but smile, which just makes her smack him on the arm and tell him to shut up.

There's a lot more to her than meets the eye, he decides, and he likes learning about her.

However, that night, he's left by himself, and he finds himself worrying – what if they accidentally give something away? What if promotion doesn't go well? What if their movie is a flop?

_Their movie won't flop_, Beck decides, _it just can't_. And with that, he dozes off to sleep.

/

**A/N: SO THERE'S A BUNCH OF TEETH-ROTTING FLUFF TO MAKE UP FOR THE ANGST BUCKET LAST CHAPTER. I've been having tons of people bugging me about updating this fic, but I just didn't get around to it till now. This is for you guys. Hope it didn't suck.**

**Thank you all for your brilliant reviews, by the way. They mean the world to me. Keep it up, huh? Maybe I'll update a bit faster ;)**


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